Last month, I had enough. I said goodbye to Disney Plus. Here’s why.
4. Declining quality of shows
Disney Plus’ exclusive Marvel and “Star Wars” TV shows got me to eagerly sign up for the platform in 2019. But the new releases have been too frequent and their quality has been declining for years.
I stopped keeping up with the Marvel Cinematic Universe after “Secret Invasion,” and a lot of our followers have, too. The views for our weekly episodic reviews stopped gaining traction and they felt like chores, so we stopped doing them.
Disney Plus has had a few gems recently — like “Andor” Season 2 — but they have been few and far in between. And I couldn’t justify paying for a streaming platform because of one or two shows.
3. Disney is feckless
This didn’t play a major role in my initial decision to cancel, but it’s a contributing factor as to why I haven’t gone back: Disney has been feckless.
When Jimmy Kimmel came under fire from President Donald Trump’s administration over comments he made about the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, it didn’t stand by him; it took him off the air. While the company later brought Kimmel’s show back to airwaves, it only did so after significant backlash after it became a flashpoint for free speech and government censorship.
That’s not an isolated incident. Disney has repeatedly failed to stand by its creators at its own expense, the most disastrous example was its firing of James Gunn from “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” after far-right commentators called for his removal over old tweets in July 2018.
The tweets are offensive — that’s why Gunn disavowed them and apologized. They were from a different era of his career and no longer represented who he was.
But it didn’t matter to Disney and Gunn was out. Until he wasn’t. By March of the next year, Disney hired him back.
It was a bad look for Disney and it allowed Marvel’s rival, DC, to hire Gunn for “The Suicide Squad” in October 2018. Gunn is now leading DC’s next era of superhero films, which have outcompeted his old workplace.
Disney stands for nothing but what is most convenient and beneficial for it, which can shift daily. The company has reshaped the entertainment industry and owns a large slice of it, but it lacks conviction and leadership.
2. Not enough there
The last show I finished on Disney Plus was “Andor” Season 2 back in May. The vast majority of its content is children’s shows — unless you have children, there’s just not enough there.
Since it launched in 2019, the platform has embraced weekly episode releases instead of releasing episodes all at once, like Netflix. But it’s painfully apparent that Disney Plus is doing this to stretch its content — it otherwise cannot justify a $15.99 a month subscription fee.
1. The platform is not worth its current price of $15.99 a month and does not deserve a price increase
Unless you have children, Disney Plus is not worth its current price of $15.99 a month, which is $2 less than Netflix, which outperforms it in the volume and variety of its original content and library.
Disney Plus’ fair market price for those who don’t have kids is about $6.99 a month — its original price. The platform has given itself consistent price hikes it can’t justify — likely because of the astronomical production costs of its mostly lackluster original shows.
It’s now trying to raise its price to $18.99 — more than a standard Netflix subscription.
Absolutely not.
Owners of streaming platforms need to understand that to justify a price hike, it needs to offer more value in return to its subscribers. Disney Plus hasn’t done that.
Not every production company or TV channel needs its own streaming platform, and very few are worth more than $10 a month, especially when most Americans are being squeezed by inflation, high housing costs and President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The streaming bubble is heading towards collapse. More of these platforms will disappear or be consolidated. Disney already offers a Disney Plus/Hulu bundle — it’s time to drop the pretenses and merge them into one platform.
Disney Plus has provided a lot of content for this website, but I don’t think I’ll miss it. It’s run its course and time to move on.
InReview 
Leave a comment