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The Disney Plus launch was mired with problems on launch day because of a coding issue, exec says (DIS)

Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney

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:

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