3 Non-Obvious Insights From the Launch of Disney+

It would have been hard for you to miss the launch of Disney’s new streaming service, which reportedly already passed 10 million subscribers just a day into launch and already inspired Netflix to announce new partnerships. Of the many articles about the launch, here were three that I found particularly interesting …

1. Dated content may come with sensitivity warnings. As Disney unlocks lots of archived content, some of the ways that women or minorities are shown in this content will appear particularly dated and sometimes offensive. To preempt the potential controversy, the brand is experimenting with a “this was made in a different era” style disclaimer. 
2. Bonus footage could offer endless engagement. On a streaming platform like this, Disney will have almost endless opportunities to share extended director’s cuts, alternate endings, behind the scenes footage and lots more. Though they will likely be judicious to start with, it’s easy to imagine a point in the future where a popular film could have 20 or 30 hours of bonus footage available via streaming. 
3. Creators will be tempted to remake history. Star Wars supergeeks have been in a frenzy this week about new changes to an iconic scene from the original film that was apparently changed by George Lucas to make his hero (Han Solo) more … heroic. As archived films get added to the library , there will likely be a growing temptation on the part of those who made the films to fix those small (or big) things that they always regretted.