Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney
Kevin Mayer, Disney's chairman of Direct-to-Consumer and International.
- During an interview at Recode's Code Media conference, Disney direct-to-consumer chairman Kevin Mayer said a "coding issue" created problems for Disney Plus on launch day - thousands of people reported crashes and had difficulty accessing the service when it launched last week.
- Disney released an official statement when Disney Plus launched in the US, saying demand for the service had exceeded expectations. Disney Plus earned more than 10 million subscribers in its first week.
- At Code Media Meyer said a technical issue within the Disney Plus programming will be reworked to improve functionality.
- The Disney Plus app is available on mobile devices, TVs, and video game consoles - the service costs $7.99 per month or $70 per year.
- In an interview with Business Insider last week, Disney Streaming Services' CTO Joe Inzerillo described some of the biggest challenges to bringing Disney Plus online.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Technical issues with Disney Plus prevented thousands of people from accessing the digital video service when it launched on November 12. Disney said demand for the service had exceeded expectations, and now Disney direct-to-consumer chairman Kevin Mayer says the Disney Plus app will be updated to improve functionality.
In an interview at Recode's Code Media conference one week later, Mayer said Disney's streaming technology was unprepared for the massive influence of traffic that came with the Disney Plus launch. More than 10 million people subscribed to Disney Plus in its first day online.
As people reported problems accessing Disney Plus last week, Disney issued a public statement saying demand for the service had exceeded expectations.
"We've never had demand like we saw that day and what we're continuing to see," Mayer said at Code Media. "There were some limits to the architecture that we had in place were made apparent to us that weren't before."
In 2017 Disney spent $1.58 billion to acquire a majority stake in streaming technology firm BAMTech and begin building its online video platforms. The sports-focused ESPN Plus has been operating since early 2018, but the popularity of Disney Plus presented new challenges.
Meyer said developers had removed temporarily features like "continue watching" while the Disney Plus app was repaired but BAMTech was actively implementing fixes that would arrive in the coming week.
You can watch Meyer's full Code Media interview below:
