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Disney Plus discount demand crashes its preorder website

The D23 Disney fan-club site funneling the preorders couldn't handle a spike in traffic, but it's back up now.

Joan E. Solsman Former Senior Reporter
Joan E. Solsman was CNET's senior media reporter, covering the intersection of entertainment and technology. She's reported from locations spanning from Disneyland to Serbian refugee camps, and she previously wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. She bikes to get almost everywhere and has been doored only once.
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Joan E. Solsman
FROZEN 2

Frozen 2 will be among the Disney theatrical films becoming available to stream early next year on Disney Plus. 

 Disney

Disney Plus presale demand Tuesday knocked out the the Disney fan-club website offering discounted preorders for the Disney streaming service launching Nov. 12. The outage of the D23 website, which acted as the entry point for the deal, lasted about three hours.

Disney said the outage occurred because of an unexpected surge in traffic for a discounted presale offer for Disney Plus, the streaming video service that Disney is launching to compete with the likes of Netflix. The "Founders Circle" deal significantly cut the price of the service if you commit to a three-year subscription.

The D23 site and the Disney Plus service itself don't share backend technology, so one of them crashing under heavy traffic doesn't necessarily presage bandwidth problems for the other. And the offer was mostly targeted at Disney fan-club members, the people most likely to flood the company with interest.

Watch this: Disney Plus preorders offer a big discount, but there's a catch (The Daily Charge, 8/27/2019)

The "Founders Circle" deal offers a three-year subscription for $140.97 total, or the equivalent of $3.92 a month, compared with the $7-a-month price if you don't make a long-term commitment.

Disney Plus is the highest-profile example of traditional Hollywood digging in to compete as streaming becomes a growing consumer demand. With tech giants pouring money into their own TV shows and movies and luring consumers away from traditional pay TV, Disney is aiming to create a single streaming hub for all of its family-friendly content to complement its other services like Hulu catering to adult-oriented programming and ESPN Plus specializing in sports.