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Disney Plus launch glitches out with service failures, login problems

It's not just you.

Joan E. Solsman Former Senior Reporter
Joan E. Solsman was CNET's senior media reporter, covering the intersection of entertainment and technology. She's reported from locations spanning from Disneyland to Serbian refugee camps, and she previously wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. She bikes to get almost everywhere and has been doored only once.
Expertise Streaming video, film, television and music; virtual, augmented and mixed reality; deep fakes and synthetic media; content moderation and misinformation online Credentials
  • Three Folio Eddie award wins: 2018 science & technology writing (Cartoon bunnies are hacking your brain), 2021 analysis (Deepfakes' election threat isn't what you'd think) and 2022 culture article (Apple's CODA Takes You Into an Inner World of Sign)
Joan E. Solsman
2 min read

Disney Plus launched early Tuesday, and users wasted no time complaining of service failures.

In the initial going, Disney Plus complaints were clustered in big cities in the Eastern US and Canada, lining up with the areas likely to experience peak demand early Tuesday morning, according to outage tracker DownDetector. The tracker also showed complaints in the Netherlands, where Disney Plus launched as a subscription service Tuesday after operating as a free beta app for weeks. 

The disruptions appeared to decline as the day went on. 

Disney attributed the problems to demand exceeding its "high expectations." 

"We are pleased by this incredible response and are working to quickly resolve the current user issue. We appreciate your patience," the company said in a statement.   

The complaints ran a gamut of errors, including difficulties logging in, inability to stream, app failures, and shows and movies disappearing from the library.

Disney Plus is the entertainment giant's streaming service for almost everything it creates. At $7 a month, it's designed as the exclusive home to stream theatrical blockbusters from Star WarsMarvel, Pixar and Disney's own studios, as well as original programs and a big library of titles. 

It's possibly the most high-profile example of traditional Hollywood reorienting to compete in streaming video against the likes of Netflix. Disney realigned its entire company to make a gigantic bet on streaming, including forsaking the hundreds of millions of dollars Netflix itself was paying Disney to stream the company's blockbuster movies. 

Originally published Nov. 12 at 6:58 a.m. PT.
Update, 11:20 a.m. PT: With disruptions easing. 

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Watch this: Disney Plus is here! What do we think? (The Daily Charge, 11/12/2019)