The Walt Disney Co. said first-day sign-ups for its new streaming service, Disney+, exceeded its expectations, resulting in a number of technical problems.
DownDetector, which tracks outages for telecom and streaming companies, tallied just over 8,000 trouble reports with the new OTT service as of 9 a.m. ET on Tuesday morning (Nov. 12). Reports had leveled out to under 1,500 by 12:30 p.m. ET. DownDetector’s map showed problems in the U.S., Canada and the Netherlands.
Problems seem to run the gamut — everything from logging in to playability issues. “I am in the middle of watching a movie, and while it is playing the circle in the middle of the screen keeps spinning but the movie is playing,” reported one DownDetector user.
“I can log in, I just cant see any content or stream anything,” wrote another user.
Some signing up for the new $6.99 Disney+ platform were greeted with an image of Disney animated character Wreck-It Ralph, with a message indicating that they were somehow unsuccessful in connecting to Disney’s servers.
Another error message, featuring Mickey Mouse and Pluto floating on an asteroid in space helmets, instructed users to relaunch their Disney+ app.
An attempt by Multichannel News to sign up and use the service went largely OK, save for an inability to access the Marvel channel on Disney+
"The consumer demand for Disney+ has exceeded our high expectations,” Disney said in a statement this morning. “We are pleased by this incredible response and are working to quickly resolve the current user issue. We appreciate your patience," a Disney+ spokesperson said in a statement.
The launch of Disney+ has been one of the more highly anticipated media-technology events, representing a sea change in an incumbent video content industry that is no longer willing to license its wares to Netflix.
Disney+ is set to launch in Australia, New Zealand and Puerto Rico on Nov. 19. And it’s set to be deployed across Western Europe at the end of the first quarter.
