Downloaded Disney Plus content can be watched if removed (Update: Not really)

Update, October 24, 2019 (01:45 PM ET): It looks like not even Disney CEO Bob Iger understands how Disney Plus works. Although Iger pretty plainly states that users will still be able to watch downloaded Disney Plus content even if that content is removed from the service, that doesn’t appear to be the case at all.

A Disney representative told The Verge that Iger’s remarks were “misconstrued.” It turns out that all downloaded content that eventually gets removed from Disney Plus will then be unviewable for everyone, regardless of its downloaded status.

Of course, it will be a long while before any Disney Plus content gets removed, so consumers don’t really need to worry about this. Still, it is pretty silly that the CEO of the company could be so blatantly wrong in trying to explain his own company’s streaming service.

Original article, October 24, 2019 (05:15 AM ET): One of the more disappointing things about streaming services is that content available one month might not be available in the next month.

Fortunately, Disney Plus has a workaround, according to Disney CEO Bob Iger (h/t: Vanity Fair). The Disney executive noted that some content won’t be available on the service for “brief periods of time” due to legacy deals. But that doesn’t necessarily mean content removed from Disney Plus can’t be viewed on the platform.

“And if you are a (Disney Plus) subscriber, you can download it and put it on a device, and it will stay on that device as long as you continue to subscribe,” Iger was quoted as saying.

“So in your case, if you wanted to download 10 classic Disney films that may not have all been available at once before, you can do that, basically fill all of your hard drive space on one of your devices and your child can watch wherever they are.”

That’s a solid incentive to stay subscribed to the platform then, as letting your subscription elapse presumably means that downloaded content not available on the service is now gone for good. Hopefully we see other streaming services offer similar functionality in the near future.

This isn’t the only Disney Plus news in recent days, as Verizon confirmed that new and existing unlimited subscribers will get one year of access to the streaming service. This offer is also available to new Fios and fixed 5G users.