Disney+'s Upcoming TV Channels Include A Big First For Marvel & Star Wars

For Marvel and "Star Wars" fans, the fantastical superhero world and that famous galaxy far, far away are both getting much closer than ever before. More so than most major studios, Disney has been trying to remain on the cutting edge of the streaming era ever since the debut of Disney+ and the premieres of the various shows in both franchises. That's led to more than its fair share of ups and downs over the years — the highs being the immediate breakout success of hits like "The Mandalorian" or "WandaVision," and the lows most notably arriving with CEO Bob Iger admitting that a glut of streaming series ended up diluting the overall brand.

All that has led to the latest twist in this years-long saga, as Disney makes its most dramatic move yet in the streaming space. In a new Bloomberg report, the outlet sat down with Disney entertainment co-chair Dana Walden and got the scoop about the company's upcoming strategy. Sometime in the next few months, Disney+ will add four new channels available to subscribers: a seasonal one called "Hallowstream," "Throwbacks" for all the Disney Adults nostalgic fans out there, a channel focused on documentaries and biopics titled "Real Life," and, last but not least, the main event "Hits and Heroes." For the first time, Marvel and "Star Wars" will be available to watch on these channels for paying customers. The report characterizes this as an attempt to stay competitive with similar offerings by other rivals, from major competitors like Netflix and Amazon all the way to YouTube, Peacock, and Tubi.

If Disney has its way, subscribers won't waste a single second of free time anywhere except in front of an internet-enabled device nearest you. Half the battle of a streaming service like Disney+ is gaining loyal subscribers who'll sign up for a year, set it to auto-renew, and then forget to ever cancel again once they finish watching whatever they wanted to catch up on. The other half is keeping those subscribers actually consuming its product, racking up iffy-sounding metrics like "minutes watched" and other nonsense that's all the rage these days. Enter the magical new addition of streaming channels, which even the Bloomberg report acknowledges as "part of a major push to increase the amount of time viewers spend watching Disney+." According to the article (which cites Nielsen ratings), Disney+ viewership currently ranks roughly on par with rival Tubi — well behind main competitors like Netflix and Prime Video.

So, how much will these channels actually affect the average subscriber's experience on Disney+, you ask? It's hard to say until the company actually incorporates this onto the service, likely adding a special series of tabs on the main page to make it as easy as possible for viewers to navigate to ... and fall into this time-sink option for as long as physically possible. When asked directly about how long low viewership numbers can be considered sustainable, Dana Walden responded:

"We're monitoring it very carefully. Obviously the resources we are devoting to channels, which are not viewed the way they used to be, is declining. And we continue to ramp up investment in places where we think viewership can grow. I would include broadcast in that bucket."

The hope on Disney's part is that having all the Marvel and "Star Wars" at your fingertips will change that trend, but we shall see.