In the weeks following the launch of Disney+, the new streaming platform has been plagued with crashes, glitches, and unhappy customers. At the same time, Disney+ is the talk of the town, gaining over 10 million subscribers on its first day of operation. Kevin Mayer, head of Disney’s Direct to Consumer and International division, recently explained the causes of some of the recent issues with Disney+.
In regards to the crashes, Mayer admitted that 10 million subscribers gained on the first day was “a lot larger than we thought.” He went on to state that Disney had “never had demand like we saw that day” and that “We ran into issues with the architecture, and we’re fixing that… It was a coding issue and we are going to recode it.”
Many tech news outlets have confirmed that the overall design of Disney+ is not quite up to par with some of the other streaming platforms on the market. Ryan Waniata of Digital Trends writes that though Disney+ has a very pleasing aesthetic on the surface, “under the polished veneer rests a flurry of frustrations.” Disney+ lacks many features that are typically expected of a streaming platform, including not having any sort of “Continue Watching” or “Recently Watched” menu. Additionally, the Search feature of the platform is finicky, and often fails to find shows unless they are typed correctly to the letter (you have to type One Hundred and One Dalmatians, not 101 dalmatians). Mayer did not comment on whether these specific issues would be addressed by the upcoming software update for the platform.
However, a spokesperson from Disney did take the time to address the news that Disney+ had been hacked and that user account information was being sold online. “We have found no evidence of security breach,” they stated earlier this evening. However, they went on to confirm that “Billions of usernames and passwords leaked from previous breaches at other companies, pre-dating the launch of Disney+, are being sold on the web.” They then concluded by reassuring users: “We continuously audit our security systems and when we find an attempted suspicious login we proactively lock the associated user account and direct the user to select a new password.” However, in the event that you feel your account may have been hacked, CNN Business had published some guidelines as to how to protect yourself. No additional information on the current standing of Disney+ was offered by the company at this time.