Disney Plus UK may have launched a few months after its US counterpart, but it wasted little time establishing itself as one of the best streaming services on the market. If you're looking for superheroes (Marvel), space opera (Star Wars), animated classics (the Pixar and Disney back catalogues), or Springfield (The Simpsons), this is your ideal TV destination. Throw in Star on Disney Plus (a built-in hub that provides adult-friendly content than the standard Disney fare) and you're looking at a platform capable of holding its own alongside behemoths such as Netflix and Prime Video.
This guide tells you everything you need to know about Disney Plus UK, from details on how to sign up to information on pricing and plans – including details of significant changes heading your way. November will see the introduction of a new "With Ads" tier, as well as a price increase if you want to stick with your current ad-free service. Further in the future, there's even been talk of a Netflix-style crackdown on password sharing.
We'll also explain key features such as SharePlay and GroupWatch, and tell you about the most exciting new Disney Plus UK movies and TV shows arriving on the platform before the end of 2023. And if you want a little more guidance on whether the streamer is for you, read our Disney Plus review.
What is Disney Plus?
Disney Plus is a streaming platform much like Netflix, which enables you to watch movies and TV shows on demand. Despite the name, it isn't only Disney content that's available. You'll also find a vault of movies and TV shows from Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, and – of course – Disney itself. Plus, there's National Geographic releases, and enough of The Simpsons that you'll never run out of excuses to drop into Springfield – 33 out of the 34 seasons to date, to be exact.
Additionally, UK viewers get access to Star, a hub within the Disney Plus platform that gives you access to more grown-up content than the traditional Disney fare. It's here you'll find the likes of The Bear, Only Murders in the Building and Predator prequel Prey.
Disney Plus can be streamed on a whole range of devices, including your smartphone, games console, PC, smart TV and streaming stick/device. We go into more detail on supported devices later on this page.
And, unlike Netflix, Disney Plus doesn't currently charge extra for 4K picture quality – you simply get access to everything. That said, the current Disney Plus UK pricing structure is set to go through some big changes in November, as we'll explain below.
Disney Plus UK: how to sign up
To sign up for a Disney Plus UK subscription, head to the Disney Plus website. From here, you can create an account, choose what kind of subscription you require, and enter your billing details to get started. Then, with your login details to hand, you can download Disney Plus onto the device of your choice.
Is there a Disney Plus UK free trial?
At the time of writing, no. Unfortunately the Disney Plus UK free trial was discontinued in June 2020, so the cheapest way to try Disney Plus is to subscribe for a month. That's not the cheapest way to have it permanently, though: an annual subscription works out cheaper than paying monthly.
Disney Plus UK price
Disney Plus currently costs £7.99 per month in the UK. Paying monthly gives you the freedom to cancel sooner, but it costs a bit more, too. If you pay up-front for an annual subscription you can get 12 months of viewing for the price of 10, bringing the total for a year's viewing down to £79.90. That's equivalent to £6.65 a month.
However, a shake-up of Disney Plus's plans and pricing is imminent. A cheaper subscription option, including adverts, launched in the US in late 2022, and the UK is set to follow suit by introducing its own "with ads" option on November 1. The bad news is that you'll need to spend more to hold on to the service (ad-free, 4K video, offering up to four concurrent streams) you're currently paying for.
An August 2023 announcement revealed the new UK pricing structure, which will include three plans.
Standard with Ads will be the cheapest option at £4.99 per month. As well as ads, you'll get video quality up to Full HD (1080p), 5.1 and stereo audio, and the option to watch two streams concurrently – a step down from the four streams available on the current Disney Plus UK plan. Downloads will not be available, so you'll need an active internet connection to view your favorite TV shows and movies.
The Standard plan will be ad-free and cost £7.99 per month or £79.90 annually. This tier will offer video quality up to Full HD (1080p), 5.1 and stereo audio, downloads, and the option to watch two streams concurrently.
The Premium option is equivalent to the current Disney Plus package, but comes with a significant price increase. For £10.99 per month or £109.90 annually (up from £7.99 and £79.90, respectively) you'll get video quality up to 4K UHD and HDR, Dolby Atmos sound, downloads and the option to watch up to four concurrent streams.
Disney have said that existing UK subscribers will automatically move across to the new, rebranded Disney Plus Premium tier when the new pricing structure kicks in, but "will have the option to switch to [the] Standard Plan or Standard with Ads Plan. Existing customers who choose not to switch will be billed the new price starting from their next billing cycle on or after December 6."
In other words, if you want to avoid paying an extra £3 per month, you'll need to switchover to one of the Standard packages in November.
Disney CEO Bob Iger has also revealed that the company is "actively exploring" ways to clamp down on users sharing their Disney Plus accounts. However, no firm date has been set for this change – in fact, Iger has hinted it might not come in until 2025.
What is Star on Disney Plus?
In February 2021, Star – a hub that sits on the homepage like Star Wars, Disney, Pixar, Marvel and National Geographic – arrived on Disney Plus UK. With parental controls enabled, this allowed users to watch adult TV shows and movies on the streaming service, and it quickly doubled the amount of content available to subscribers who were old enough to view it.
Best of all, Star is included with your existing Disney Plus UK subscription, so you don't even have to pay extra to get it.
The line-up includes older content that Disney owns via other production houses, such as Twentieth Century Studios, which it acquired when it bought Twentieth Century Fox (as it was then known) in a multi-billion-dollar deal in 2019. That move added numerous hit shows to the platform, including The X-Files, Lost, 24, Atlanta, How I Met Your Mother, Family Guy, Bob's Burgers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Walking Dead, and classic movies from hit franchises such as Die Hard, Alien and Predator.
Star on Disney Plus is also home to plenty of must-watch originals, including Predator prequel Prey, The Bear, Pam and Tommy, Dopesick, American Horror Stories, and Only Murders in the Building, as well as hit documentary series Welcome to Wrexham, featuring Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, and their mission to take Wrexham AFC to the Premier League.
Best upcoming Disney Plus movies and TV shows
There's no question the platform boasts one of the most impressive libraries out there. The selection of the best Disney Plus movies and the best Disney Plus shows features numerous hits from Pixar, Disney, the Star Wars and Marvel universes, as well as essential documentaries (The Beatles: Get Back, Light & Magic) and classics from the Twentieth Century Fox back catalogue, including a whopping 33 seasons of The Simpsons.
There's also new content added to the service regularly, with the excellent Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3 heading up the list of the best new Disney Plus movies, and new episodes of Futurama and Only Murders in the Building debuting every week on Star.
Here are a few of the most exciting movies and TV shows heading your way before the end of 2023:
- StarWars: Ahsoka (TV show) – releasing August 23
- The Little Mermaid (movie) – releasing September 6
- I am Groot season 2 (TV show) – releasing September 6
- Justified: City Primeval (TV show) – releasing September 6 (Star)
- Welcome to Wrexham season 2 (documentary) – releasing September 13 (Star)
- Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3 (documentary) – releasing September 13
- Lang Lang Plays Disney (concert) – releasing September 15
- Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of Secret Invasion (documentary) – releasing September 20
- The Kardashians season 4 (documentary) – releasing September 28 (Star)
- Loki season 2 (TV show) – releasing October 6
- Echo (TV show) – releasing November 29
- Pixar's Win or Lose (TV show) – releasing December (date TBC)
- The Kardashians S4: 28 September
If the streamer follows its usual release pattern, recent theatrical releases Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Elemental and Haunted Mansion are likely to show up on Disney Plus before the end of the year. We may also see another Star Wars TV show in the form of the Jude Law-starring Skeleton Crew – though this is very much TBC.
Disney Plus UK: apps and compatible devices
Disney Plus is available on almost any device in the UK, including mobile phones, tablets, games consoles, streaming media devices and many of the best smart TVs. You can take Disney Plus on the go, too, downloading as many movies and shows as you can fit on your device. That is, as long as you have an active subscription and connect to the internet every 30 days.
Disney Plus UK is available on LG TVs, Sky Q, Apple TV, Roku streaming devices, Android (5.0 and later), iOS (11.0 and later), PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, LG WebOS smart TVs, Samsung Tizen smart TVs, Vizio Smartcast TVs, Google Chromecast, Now TV, and Amazon's Fire range of streaming devices. One notable exception is the Nintendo Switch, which is still pretty poor at supporting streaming services.
Phillips' Android-based smart TVs support Disney Plus, too. Your Samsung TV should be able to get Disney Plus as well. Read our guide and discover if your TV can support it.
You can search for and download Disney Plus on the device of your choice, but here are some app links if you're having a bit of trouble. Disney Plus is available in web browsers, on Smart TVs, through Amazon devices, iOS, Android, PlayStation consoles, Xbox devices, Roku sticks, and almost everything else (except – as previously mentioned – Nintendo Switch).
Disney Plus UK 4K and HDR support
Disney Plus supports 4K and HDR. When you're in the app, head over to the 'details' tab of a given movie or show and you'll see a section that says 'available in the following formats', which will explain if the content in question features 4K Ultra HD and HDR.
Additionally, Disney Plus UK offers additional support to Marvel movies with its Enhanced Mode. This allows users to watch certain MCU superhero flicks in IMAX cinema mode – in other words, allowing you to see more of what's on the screen due to its larger aspect ratio. You can learn more about Enhanced Mode here.
However, it's important to bear in mind that following the incoming changes to Disney Plus UK plans and pricing in November, you'll no longer get 4K if you subscribe to either of the Standard plans.
What are Disney Plus UK's parental controls
Disney Plus's parental controls allow adults to restrict the type of content that children and young teens can consume via the streamer.
Disney Plus offers subscribers the chance to create up to seven profiles on one account, which can be tailored to each user's age. Parents can create access limits on various profiles (based on their content ratings), as well as being able to set profile PIN locks that prevent youngsters from accessing R-rated Disney Plus content.
Additionally, Disney Plus also provides the opportunity to create Kid profiles. This option only contains content that's suitable for children aged seven and younger, so there'll be no chance of them accessing mature movies and TV shows.
To create a Kid profile, or to stop children and young teens from seeing content that they shouldn't be watching, open up your user profile menu. Navigate to the 'edit profiles' section, and choose a profile to change. From here, you can add specific parental controls to each profile. Once you're finished, click 'done' to let these changes take effect.
What are Disney Plus SharePlay and GroupWatch?
SharePlay is a feature on iPhones, iPads and Apple TV that allows Disney Plus subscribers to watch content with their friends and family.
SharePlay enables up to 32 users – NB: you're still limited to four concurrent streams per Disney Plus account – to simultaneously watch the same movie or TV show while on a FaceTime call. Users have the opportunity to select the audio settings of their choice, too, while individual subscribers can add subtitles if necessary. (Disney Plus say that SharePlay is "only available on iPhone, iPad and Apple TV with the latest system update", so viewers with older devices may not be able to take advantage of this feature.)
For non-Apple users (or those running older software), Disney Plus's GroupWatch offers an alternative. GroupWatch enables up to seven people to watch a synced-up film or TV episode.
The host picks a title to watch and sends a GroupWatch link to their fellow viewers. Once everyone in the group has accepted the invitation and streaming has begun, anyone can pause or resume the stream – or even skip ahead to the exciting moments. Subscribers can also react in real-time to what they're watching, using GroupWatch's in-built emoji system. You can find out more in our dedicated GroupWatch hub.
Disney Plus UK error codes: What the numbers mean
Having trouble with your service? Check out our list of Disney Plus error codes for more on what the different numbers mean. If you're having issues with Disney Plus you can't seem to solve, try the Disney Plus help centre for more.
If you can't resolve the issue yourself, you can contact Disney Plus customer service by calling 020 3936 2903 if you're based in the UK. You can also chat with an advisor or virtual assistant.
Disney Plus gift subscriptions: Get a year of Disney Plus for a friend or family member
Disney Plus Gift Subscriptions are available, and a year of viewing makes for an ideal last-minute present. You can buy Disney+ Gift Subscriptions here.
