Will Disney’s New Service Revolutionize the Streaming Video Industry?

Disney’s set to take over the airwaves as their new streaming service is considered a direct competitor for Netflix. Should you cut the cord to cable and make the switch?

Cable television providers have been giving Netflix and Amazon Prime some side-eye for quite some time, but the new Disney Plus streaming service may be the biggest concern coming in the near future. Disney is offering a new suite of streaming services that includes the best content they have — and they have some great, unique content. Major brands such as Marvel, Pixar, National Geographic, Star Wars plus ESPN and Hulu could make Disney’s new streaming service the perfect option for families that are looking for a balanced entertainment service. Only one thing is certain: all of this streaming is going to be putting a heavy burden on home and business networks and they need to be ready to sustain the burden.

The Rise of Streaming Services

According to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), cable television is still a viable entity — but for how long? Cable companies continue to rake in the profits, but business owners and individuals can attest to the high cost of maintaining cable access. This is one of the reasons that over 613 million people are subscribing to streaming services to “cut the cord” on cable while still retaining access to their favorite media content. However, there’s a secondary issue with this shift, and that is the amount of bandwidth required to actually stream services in the same way that people are able to binge-watch their favorite shows on cable. Unlike cable, there is a finite amount of network capacity with streaming services, and there’s a significant amount of America still struggling to gain the high-speed access that they need for even light surfing, much less heavy-duty streaming.

The Dark Side of Video Streaming

There’s nothing worse than settling in to watch your favorite sports team on ESPN streamed via the video service Sling and finding that your video is continuously buffering. While you might check your network, you’re just as likely to find that the Sling service is the real culprit. When you marry a lack of bandwidth on the provider side with any sort of latency on your network, you’re in for a pretty frustrating viewing experience. The same is true of video conferencing — you need to know that you have the network bandwidth that you need to make the experience a pleasurable one, instead of simply being an irritation.

Are you ready to optimize your business network and work out any latency? The network infrastructure experts at Alvarez Technology Group are available to help ensure that your network is always moving swiftly. Contact us today at 831-200-8167 or fill out our quick online form for more information. Be sure to check out our online media center where we share tidbits of information about the business world, technology and how to optimize your infrastructure.