Tuesday November 12 was a historic day in television history. The launch of Disney + as a service went over like the seminal moments of TV history have in the past. It was a Who shot JR or Finale of MASH kind moment. With no barrier to entry or access it millions of people signed up for or logged into Disney+ at the same time causing headaches and glitches across the network. Talk of the service was everywhere. You could see it being talked about on TV shows that had nothing to do with Disney at all and could not avoid it on ABC and other Disney owned networks including ESPN. Kids were talking about it at school, everyone my wife works with planned to go home and log on. Simply put there has not been a premier for a streaming service like this ever. It may have well been the premier of the most anticipated movie of all time. And predictably there were problems.
Crashing is a part of any major streaming service launch. Some critics can even justifiably point out that it is one of the major weaknesses of streaming as a platform and a reason it is still going to be years before it replaces cable as a delivery system. It probably never will. But too much was made of the glitches involving Disney + on Tuesday. Because the people who cover the industry for one should have and probably did see it coming. Every article on Disney + before its debut should have said like a traffic report at rush hour, expect delays. And the headline like “People are outraged” which cited twitter users “of course” as evidence that people were losing their minds. Sensationalism in the media is to be expected, unless of course it is talking about something really important.
You can not keep people from being people. The same people will go to a Walmart every Saturday afternoon and rail at how crowded it is every week. In the case of “outrage” regarding problems with Disney+ it is the same. Should a service work when it launches? Yes. But are there factors that prevent things from going perfect sometimes? Yes, the biggest one is that Disney was the victim of its own marketing and popularity. It was very aggressively inviting people to sign up and get started over the weekend. And has been a highly anticipated service. To this point nothing has arrived with this sort of fanfare. HBO Now arrived quietly in comparison and I honestly think the roll out of HBO Max will be a wisper compared to the chorus that accompanied the Disney + launch. I do videos on new services all of the time. My Disney + video garnered over 50k views in less than 24 hours. Not everybody wanted this service but I bet you know someone who got it.
The crush of people all trying to get the service, use the service or even sign up for it all at the same time and the problems that arose from it is the reason that some new services roll out their wares more slowly. Disney could have maybe avoided the jam up by only making it available via its website during the first 24 hours. Or maybe only on Roku Etc. But you know what would have happened then? “So if I want Disney + I have to go out and get a brand new computer? I don’t need a computer I use my phone for everything. I guess I won’t get Disney+” Or “If I have to go get a Roku when I already have a Fire Stick just to watch……..” You can fill in the blanks. It’s next to impossible to effective get the word out to the entire American public with any nuance. And misconceptions can last forever.
So instead it went out on as many platforms as it could come to an agreement with.
Some problems can’t be fixed when we want them to be
Calling a help line at the same time millions of people are is never going to go smoothly or quickly. Sometimes we just eat to ask questions ourselves to an actual person though. But there are times when it is just better to ignore that urge. Disney had a help page set up just to answer questions about the service and even a very detailed page to answer questions about its Hulu, DP, and ESPN+ bundle. But for those who wanted or needed to call about an issue that very second they were met with very long wait times. Have you ever called when the cable was out to 2 million people in one place? Or ordered food from a pizza place in the middle of the biggest rainstorm of the year on a Friday night after 6pm? You will have similar results every time. Much longer hold times, and be told that the problem is being worked on. Disney is no different.
But I paid for this service shouldn’t I expect to be able to use it? Isn’t this stealing?
Yes. But having a system error that causes a delay is not the same thing as a company stealing your money. Unless it happens all the time under normal use circumstances. Movie Pass for instance set up its movie app so that when people tried to see movies they would get a message that said no screenings were available at the same places they were available hours before but rigged the system so that you could only get tickets at the place you were seeing the movie etc. One of the many reasons it failed. Disney was simply the victim of a logjam of access. Another famous example of this happening was problems streaming Game Of Thrones on HBO Go. There were just too many people trying to do it at the very same instance and it couldn’t handle it.
Should I expect similar results later?
No. In the next few days millions of people will get signed up for the service and watch the Mandalorian and other things and get their fix. It will continue to be popular no doubt. But the initial excitement surrounding the launch of Disney + can’t be compared to any other TV services. It is more like comparing cyber Monday or Black Friday to a Tuesday in September. The problems of November 12 will probably not happen again because no other day will be the first time the service is available.
