Roger Fingas
Disney on Tuesday launched a new online streaming service known as DisneyLife, currently available only in the U.K., but with plans for global expansion.
Subscribers pay £9.99 per month and gain access to Disney movies ranging from animated features like The Jungle Book and Toy Story to live-action titles like the Pirates of the Caribbean series. Not all films will be available at launch — Frozen, for instance, is only coming in spring 2016, according to The Guardian.
The service is also debuting with over 2,000 TV episodes, an assortment of books, and some 5,000 songs, among them the Frozen soundtrack.
Each account can have up to six profiles, and while content can be viewed on the Web, there's a strong emphasis on support for iOS and Android devices, including Android TV. People can also push music and video to TVs via a Chromecast or Apple TV, though the Apple TV support is in the form of AirPlay, and limited to SD video quality.
There is no word on a native Apple TV app.
Some other perks include parental controls, and a free Disney app download every month. An important feature is offline caching, extending to video. Cached files are downgraded to SD however, can only be downloaded in the U.K., and will stop working without Internet access after 30 days.
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6 Comments
Apple really needs to make progress in this space. To have dozens of content choices all with their own ecosystem within ecosystem is going to be a pain. Different usage policies and costs. Everyone cannot have $10 a month from me for their content. Something has to give.
£9.99 for this, £10 for that, £9.99 for something else, etc etc etc,
Far too many 'services' that don't really differentiate themselves from each other. Sure, some have some home grown shows but really, do these companies think that we have wallets bulging with cash?
There are far too many for all to survive.
So what if Frozen is not gonna be available to next year. don't they think that pretty well every family that wants it already has the DVD?
Disney don't seem to have a clear USP.
Perhaps they are putting their toe in the water here in the UK. If it flops then so what eh? The USA is apparently where it is all at and the rest of the world don't really matter.
I'm a bit confused by this article. The headline says DisneyLife online streaming service launched with Apple TV support, but in the body of the article it says it's AirPlay only in SD only. I don't really count that as true support.
[quote name="TechProd1gy" url="/t/190333/disneylife-online-streaming-service-launches-in-uk-with-ios-apple-tv-support#post_2810277"]Apple really needs to make progress in this space. To have dozens of content choices all with their own ecosystem within ecosystem is going to be a pain. Different usage policies and costs. Everyone cannot have $10 a month from me for their content. Something has to give.[/quote] Agreed, as soon as Tim Cook said the future of TV is apps, my heart sank. Why couldn't this just be released as a subscription bundle via iTunes?
For years I've wondered why Apple hasn't made exclusive deals with Disney. I still don't buy that this is the revolutionary ?tv that Apple has been working on. This was released because content deals were taking too long and fans everywhere where anxious while the competition released new devices. Don't act like you don't remember all the whining here for a new ?tv.