Disney Plus is now live in the UK and Ireland: Disney’s new streaming service finally comes to the UK
Disney's new streaming service - Disney Plus - is now live in four European countries, including the UK and Ireland
Netflix and Amazon Prime step aside because there’s a new streaming service in town. As of this morning, Disney Plus is now live in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Spain and Austria.
These European countries join a select list of nations – including the US, Canada, Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand – that received the service late last year, and India where Disney Plus went live in partnership with regional service Hotstar at the beginning of this month.
The UK Disney Plus launch date was brought forward from 31 March to 24 March and – like clockwork – the service went live at 1am, as promised by the countdown timer on their website.
READ NEXT: Every film and TV show available on Disney Plus UK
How much does Disney Plus cost in the UK and Ireland?
Disney Plus UK costs £5.99 a month or £59.99 per year, which works out cheaper in the long run. If you’re based in Ireland, the service costs €6.99 a month or €69.99 a year.
Everyone that signs up to the service will get a seven-day free trial, during which time you can use the service in its entirety and cancel your subscription without being charged.
READ NEXT: How to watch, cast and download Disney Plus content offline
In comparison, Netflix offers a basic monthly subscription for £5.99, which allows users to stream on one device at a time but only in standard definition. Its most common subscription, which costs £8.99, allows users to stream on two devices at a time, in high definition.
Disney Plus is much better in this regard because it lets you stream content on four devices simultaneously and offers a broad selection of HD and 4K content.
Unlike Netflix, you can download every single Disney Plus film or TV show to any of your devices to watch when you’re offline. There’s a good reason why we voted Disney Plus our favourite streaming service this year.
What can I watch on Disney Plus?
Disney Plus has five broad umbrella brands, namely Disney, Pixar, Star Wars, Marvel and National Geographic. In short, everyone that’s working from home now has enough content to keep themselves – and their kids – entertained until we’re safely out of self-quarantine.
Apart from Disney hits like Frozen, and the last year’s live-action remakes of Aladdin and Lion King, you can watch nine Star Wars films and a ton of Marvel blockbusters – including all the Avengers movies – yes, that includes Avengers Endgame.
You can also watch original Star Wars series like The Mandalorian and Clone Wars, and feast your eyes on all the X-Men, Wolverine and Pirates of the Caribbean films.
In addition to new shows and films, Disney Plus includes around 500 films from the Disney library and around 7,000 episodes of Disney TV.
Unlike Netflix and Marvel that have had years to develop original content, Disney is only just getting started. However, there are at least 10 new TV series films planned for the MCU, all of which will be available exclusively on Disney Plus.
And finally, Disney Plus UK users can access to more than 600 episodes of The Simpsons, something we were hoping would cross the Atlantic safely after the US website received it at launch last year.
What devices can I watch Disney Plus on?
Like any of the other streaming services you’re used to, you can watch Disney Plus content on your browser on your PC or laptop. There are free apps for both Android and iOS that you can now install and start using to stream and cast content.
As we mentioned before, you can download everything on Disney Plys to watch offline on any of these devices. The amount of data you can download is dependent on your device’s storage space.
Apart from these devices, Disney Plus is also available as an app download for gaming consoles like the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and even smart TV sticks, like the Google Chromecast and Amazon Fire TV Stick.
You can also access Disney Plys on the Sky Q box in the UK and Ireland, before the service joins the Now TV device-lineup later in the year.
What happened to DisneyLife?
DisneyLife was the erstwhile UK subscription service to watch Disney content. The service has now been terminated and subscribers have been told to switch to Disney Plus instead.
While DisneyLife subscribers paid £4.99/mnth, Disney Plus costs £5.99/mnth for a more broader library of content.
If customers want to continue streaming DisneyLife content, they’ll need to manually signup to Disney Plus because the account transition is not automated.