Along came Mickey...

Hid your kids, hid your devices because the mouse will be pouncing November 12.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for the O.G., Mouseketeer #1, the house of the Mouse, give it up for the one and only, Mickey Mouse. (And the crowd goes wild)

Now that’s how you introduce a new product. Move aside Apple and whatever the heck your unpriced streaming service with middle aged superstars is.

Here's looking at you Netflix and the wealth of licensed content coming off your platform in the next 12 months. You've just been served notice - there's a new sheriff coming to town and his name is Bob Iger and he's bringing his multi-billion dollar Death Star to take over the streaming wars.

Bob Iger, Chairman of Disney, has awakened the force, assembled the Avengers, and transported the entirety of my childhood (The Little Mermaid, Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Lizzie McGuire, etc.) from multiple VHS tapes to one single app, Disney+.

Consumers do not yet appreciate it but they live in a golden age of streaming. Make no mistake though - a time of reckoning is fast approaching. The era of a centralized subscription video on demand (aka SVODs - apps requiring a subscription with no commercials) are over - i.e. the time when Netflix held all the titles you watched growing up (Friends - owned by Warner Media Group, Disney Classics - owned by Walt Disney Corporation, etc.).

Over the last eighteen months, the market has fractured with everyone and their brother launching their own streaming app with their own content. I can easily name over two dozen streaming services in existence that fill some type of genre or content void in my life (British Television - BritBox, next, broadcast network back catalogs - CBS All Access, next, premium content, HBO NOW, STARZ, next, Japanese anime - CrunchyRoll and of course, Superheroes - DCU, etc.).

The rise of these new platforms is a problem for consumers - why? With more choices, comes less choice. Yes, you read that statement correctly - the rise of more streaming services means more content floods the market but at a price. The content you used to enjoy on one service - like Netflix will disappear. These new SVODs have decided that they do not want to license the rights to older shows (which drives a significant portion of viewership) to companies like Netflix but retain and monetize it themselves.

As a consumer, I hate this - I pay Netflix's new price (get my perspective on their recent price hike), I expect to get access to whatever content I want. Not much longer. Soon, I'll most likely be forced to begin a juggling act of signing-up for a variety of streaming platforms, watch my shows and then deactivate.

For example - one month I'll reactivate my Netflix to binge shows like "The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina", one month I'll pay Sundance for "A Discovery of Witches", another month I'll share credentials or take the free trial on Hulu for "The Handmaiden's Tale" and finally another month on Amazon for "The Man in the High Castle." It's going to be exhausting to play these Jedi mind tricks with streaming services.

So, who is largely responsible for this fracturing of the consumer experience? That would be Disney. Indeed, the same company whose praises I sang just a few paragraphs above started this fight.

Quick backstory - In 2012, Disney signed a very lucrative deal with Netflix. Disney would receive sizable (think multiple Boeing 737-500…estimates put it at $200-$300M annually) in exchange for their mid-level to premier content - think Marvel, Star Wars and Pixar. Disney was new to streaming and had seen limited success in previous forays into streaming…so the deal made sense. Or to most corporations this deal would make sense.

But not Disney who obsesses over their intellectual property (i.e. Disney font, characters) and the manner in which consumers interact with them (aside - until recently, Disney had a hard rule that none of the Disney Princesses could look at each other on merchandise as they existed in different universes - talk about product-centric). Very quickly, Disney realized they were like Ariel who traded her voice to Ursula - you can't woo the man just on good looks. Disney had given away control of very valuable assets.

At the earliest opportunity (i.e. 2017), Bob Iger said "bye, Netflix, bye, we're gonna make a better streaming app than you" which jump-started a feud between the two companies.

Until recently, I was firmly entrenched in Camp Netflix - it's beloved by the Street, has an impervious subscriber base with sizable domestic and international market share, a slew of original content and robust analytics. If this were football, I'd say Netflix was at the 1 yard line with a first down led by an All Star offensive line whereas Disney was starting at their own 1 yard line, fourth down with a third string quarterback.

Then something magical happened at the happiest place on Earth. Disney proved once again - it knows its brands, its consumers and its distribution better than anyone else. In the span of two days, I'm convinced Disney+ is going to change the entire game.

Why?

It's the Content, Stupid

Remember how I mentioned earlier that in the future you'll have to subscribe to multiple services to get the content you want? That's not going to be the case here - no one, literally, no one has a comparable content library as stacked as Disney.

Here's what Bob Iger touted Disney+ as a service so overstuffed that 'no other content or technology company can rival.''

Don't believe me? Take a look at how massive their empire is and all the intellectual property associated. And this infographic does not include Fox who Disney purchased recently.

From a consumer perspective, this is a game changer. I can now watch all twenty-two Marvel films in ONE location. MIND BLOWN. Thanos' finger snap cannot turn that to dust.

Unbeatable Price

Jiminy Cricket - look at that price point - $6.99/month. Bob Iger just gave Netflix the middle finger - his service is HALF the price of Netflix and made his intentions clear. He's prioritizing subscriber growth over revenue growth and aiming directly at Netflix's sticky subscribers. (This is no small decision - per The New York Times, Disney will lose $1.8B annually…through 2023).

He will probably succeed at wooing many (myself included) away with this unbelievable price. (Iger's real objective is to bump Netflix out of the "must have streaming services consumers don't mind paying for every month).

Unparalleled Safety

Let's be honest - the internet is a scary place for parents. You cannot even let your kids watch YouTube unsupervised without concern that AutoPlay is going to roll to some live streamed mass shooting or be persuaded to take the Momo Challenge, aka the nefarious demon coaxing teenagers to kill themselves.

Not so with Disney+. The service promises no R rated content AND content gating - meaning if you just want your kids to watch only PG Disney channel favorites, you can do that. Not even Netflix has figured out how to capture the kids market.

Aside - Here's Iger three reasons why Disney+ will be successful.

It will be several months before the massive meteor known as Disney+ crash lands on Earth. But make no mistake - it's going to arrive and change everything - that much I'm sure of.