Every Wednesday and Friday we post on our Twitter the “Now Streaming” list. Today was easy. Disney simply refused to add anything. This would seem minor… if it wasn’t for the fact that this is the first skipped day since launch, 29 months earlier. That’s a horrendous precedent to set from a service that people regularly accuse of doing the bare minimum in the USA.
The quantity added each month in America has gone downhill dramatically in the past 8 months. Our monthly library breakdown articles were abandoned 3 months ago because Disney no longer provides accurate lists or adequate quantity to analyze.
Disney+ is doing such a bad job in USA that in our latest update on library sizes across the planet, we revealed that it’s falling further down the list and will likely hit rock bottom alongside Latin America by year’s end. It’s already the smallest library between its closest competitor services.
There is no excuse for this treatment for 3 primary reasons.
1. Disney is missing literally thousands of titles.
There is no excuse at all for not being able to provide any missing films from their Touchstone, Hollywood Pictures, 20th Century Fox, 20th Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures, and Disney Pictures lines or any Nat Geo specials, classic shorts, or made-for-TV films. Disney’s content curators are unqualified if they think they’ve run out of films. The content they pulled from Netflix on February 28th also included 3 films that remain unscheduled: Tini (pictured below), The BFG, and Hulk: Where Monsters Dwell. Maddening. All 3 stream internationally.
2. Disney Just Unlocked Full Maturity Ratings
1 month ago, Disney added the ability for USA to stream Rated R and TV-MA titles. In the 4 weeks since, they have absolutely refused to add any content that fits that bill. They’ve even gone as far as to issue a retraction and un-announce a Rated R title. A completely wasted upgrade that only served as one of their latest attempts at lip service regarding Disney+ adding content for “adults” or “grown ups.” It remains the cold, hard truth – if you’re an adult and want to feel respected by your streaming service, you’d best steer clear from Disney+. May we strongly suggest HBO Max or Paramount+ which continue to improve by leaps and bounds.
By the way, Hulu, Peacock, Paramount+, Netflix, and HBO Max all found a way to add content today.
3. They Could Have Moved Any Title From Any Other Friday
This is the most ridiculous reason of all. Instead of allowing an empty day and destroying consumer trust even further, they could have simply moved something scheduled for April 1st or 8th to today. Yep, they had multiple titles added the previous Fridays in April. Multiple titles.
It’s alarming as all hell that nobody who is paid to work for Disney+ thought that maaaaybe they should do that instead of spitting in the faces of their paying customers by opting to do nothing.
Imagine being the cake-sniffers that scheduled the new Simpsons short, “When Billie Met Lisa,” for the same day 14 titles were already scheduled instead of 7 days earlier when, for the first time since launch, you were skipping adding anything altogether.
Negligence. Foolishness.
The apathy / possible disdain Disney Streaming execs appear to have for United States subscribers to Disney+ is something else. We think it’s far beyond time for leadership changes. Did you know that Disney+ doesn’t even have a President right now? After Michael Paull got promoted in January to Disney Streaming President, the Disney+helm has been unmanned (unpersoned?).
It shows.
Until Disney makes top to bottom changes this is what we get. Hulu’s existence has made Disney+ USA awful compared to the rest of the world’s offering, but Hulu can’t be blamed for everything….
What Can YOU Do?
We ask those who agree with us that this is unsettling to file complaints via help.disneyplus.com. Use the live chat to nicely file a complaint. Be kind to the human on the other end. Call their customer service line and let them know it’s unacceptable to skip days when consumers rely on consistency.
We also suggest cancelling the service and subscribing to HBO Max or Paramount+. Don’t reward bad behavior.
Drew Ryan is a film, TV, and Disney geek. He has degrees in English, Student Personnel Administration, and Library & Information Science from Lawrence University, Concordia University-Wisconsin, and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Interested in the minutia and licensing of streaming service content, he is always publishing lists, suggestions, and advocating for Disney’s missing library to be added to Disney+. Drew subscribes to Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, HBO Max, and Paramount+. You can find him waxing nostalgic over classic Disney Channel or geeking out over Marvel, CW shows, & Disney on Twitter.
