A Few Minutes Ago, in a Galaxy Down the Street

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The Force appears strong with this one.

Anchored by a solid debut of The Mandalorian, Star Wars‘ first live-action series, Disney entered the on-demand fray with a glitchy bang. And the splash may alter the future of Star Wars, Netflix and the streaming universe.

The company’s new streaming service, Disney+, has already seen 10 million sign-ups since launching Tuesday, the company announced Wednesday. Disney’s stock was up more than 7% on the news. Netflix shares were down more than 3%.

Even a technical bug didn’t dampen the debut. The launch Tuesday was beset with technical errors that prevented some users from connecting with the service (I was disconnected three times). But that didn’t stop customers from flooding the sign-up page.

At $6.99 per month, or $69.99 per year, Disney+ is significantly cheaper than competitors such as Netflix, which charges $12.99 for its most popular standard HD plan.The membership fee for Amazon Prime is $119 per year, or $12.99 per month. That gap will likely narrow as Disney + lures more subscribers, but other changes seem inevitable in wake of the report:

Disney will be your kids favorite channel in a month. Even a cursory glance through the studio’s immense catalog suggests this race is already over. The library alone will favor Disney+ in the youth and young parents market. And that doesn’t include it’s catalog under the Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars brands.Image result for bambi

Netflix will become the HBO of streamers. For the past two years Netflix has been in a headlong chase for a Best Picture Oscar, last year with Roma and this year with The Irishman. The service, which already excels at documentaries and horror films, may look to become the go-to streamer for adults.

Star Wars may be headed for a TV universe. Mandalorian was an unmitigated success with fans and critics, early reviews show. The series, the brainchild of Jon Favreau, is some of the best Star Wars material to hit screens, big or small, in decades. And at its heart, Star Wars was always a soap opera deep down. Mandalorian actually looks better on a smaller screen, which is more forgiving of the series’ reliance on digital effects.Image result for mandalorian

Measuring Disney’s splash is still up in the air. The studio is offering a seven-day free trial, so likely not all of the sign-ups represent customers who will continue to pay for the service. Verizon is also offering its customers a free year of Disney+, which could further boost its subscriber numbers.

But there’s no denying the impressive opener. Disney+ has already achieved huge sign-up numbers, while competitors such as Netflix and Hulu needed years to build their subscriber bases. Disney has already signed up more than 10% of the high end of its forecast of 60 million to 90 million subscribers by the end of 2024. And Disney+ has yet to roll out to many countries beyond the U.S., Canada and the Netherlands, which were included in Tuesday’s launch. The platform will be available in Australia and New Zealand on Nov. 19. More countries will get Disney+ in the coming months.

For comparison, it took CBS about five years to reach 8 million streaming subscribers combined for CBS All Access and Showtime. Disney-owned Hulu, which has an advertising-based streaming model, claimed more than 28 million subscribers in May. Of those subscribers, 26.8 million are monthly paying customers, while the remaining have promotional accounts. Netflix claimed more than 60 million paid domestic members in its third quarter of 2019 and more than 97 million international paid members.

In other words, the mouse came to brawl. And the battle could be cutthroat, Pat Esser, the president of Cox Communications, the nation’s third-largest cable carrier, told the New York Times.

“They’re about to enter a space where the consumer, with a click of a button, will decide to be your customer or not to be your customer,” he said.