The Disney Plus Baby-O-Meter

Updated April 1

Disney Plus USA is a babysitter and has been since launch. When STAR launched in February 2021, most countries were given a proper streaming service that respected adults and understood why parental controls exist. USA was and continues to be treated poorly.

Chapek’s Hollow Promises of General Entertainment

In the USA, Disney finally unlocked TV-MA and Rated R titles when they added The Defenders Saga March 2022. After surprise-adding Alias, 8 Simple Rules, and The Finder for National Streaming Day in May, people got excited that maybe they were going to grow up. That same day they announced the arrival of Glee on June 1st and re-confirmed Love Victor for June 14th. Then, in August, we got The Orville. After that things went downhill. The ESPN 30 for 30 additions stopped cold in September after 9 solid months and general entertainment from ABC, 20th, etc did not arrive in Q4 2022. Instead, Disney provided some random Nat Geo content.

Disney+ Remains Bad

This is still a childish streaming service that provides basically nothing for grown ups that aren’t children at heart. But even we need real grown up stuff sometimes… things like Game of Thrones or Euphoria. So how do we know when Disney+ is no longer childish? It will be simple. Since they refuse to do a proper content drop (like they did when they launched Star brand tile) we’re suffering through a trickle / drip-feed. We’ve decided to follow that drip-feed like a thermometer. When it hits the top, it will no longer be embarrassing for adults without children to say “I subscribe to Disney+.”

We have set the following standards. Your mileage may vary.

The Measurements

For films, we will require the presence of 50 Rated R films. Between Touchstone and Fox, they have hundreds. This would not be difficult if they bought out deals from those brands.

For series, we require 30 TV-MA.

If Disney does a “content drop” around Disney+ Day or the ad-tier launch time, as many hope and speculate, this meter will be overflowing all at once. That is the dream, folks. Otherwise this meter will likely take over 1 year to fill, possibly more. We’re particularly concerned about their inability to add films for the past 6 months. Edit: Well, we now know their terrible team did not do that.

Disney+ Baby-O-Meter

Since Unlocking Day (TM) – March 16, 2022