This past weekend, Disney released the final episode of the animated series, “The Ghost And Molly McGee”, an animated series that follows tween optimist Molly (voiced by Ashly Burch), who lives to make the world a better place, and grumpy ghost Scratch (voiced by Dana Snyder), whose job is to spread misery. When one of Scratch’s curses backfires, he finds himself forever bound to Molly.

The finale was released in the United States on Saturday on the Disney Channel, and the new episode will also be released on Disney+ in the United States on Wednesday, 17th January 2024, though no international release date has yet been announced.

Recently, one of the show’s creators, Bill Motz, shared some thoughts on social media about some of the reasons why the show wasn’t renewed for a third season, including blaming piracy and the lack of a global momentous release.

Bill was explaining why he is very thankful to Disney for allowing him to create the show in the first place and for them being allowed to create one more episode to wrap the show up properly. But he also shared his thoughts on how pirating the show, cost them views on Disney+ and the Disney Channel, which might have changed the fate of the series.

Just want to point out that a certain “McGee” named bootleg site has over 2.6 million views. Our episodes were downloaded tens of thousands of times on the dark web and shared from there to more. If you’re looking for blame, start here.

I’m not trying to scold anyone who loved the show so much they watched it however they could. I especially understand the frustration of non-US viewing.

My ire is directed at those who stole the show by leaking it and/or creating bootleg YouTube, Google Drive, or other servers

He went on to use a bakery metaphor about how costs have gone up and how not all viewers make the same amount of money and also explained why companies like Disney decide to cancel shows.

Several factors are taken into consideration. Among them are viewership numbers, cost to make versus return, driver to platform/network (meaning do people subscribe to watch it), and cultural awareness (or “zeitgeist” factor).

The television/film industry is trying to figure things out the same way the music industry had to after Napster. It helps when content can be released everywhere at once and on multiple platforms. Still, lots of people would rather bootleg than pay or watch a commercial.

When some fans pointed out that they pirated episodes of the show because the show wasn’t available outside of the US yet, Bill acknowledged this is an issue that needs to be addressed.

While Disney has generally been able to work out global releases for its major Disney+ shows like “Ahsoka”, “Percy Jackson” and “Secret Invasion”, when it comes to shows from the other television studios like Disney Branded TV, FX, 20th TV and ABC, global releases are much more rare.

The lack of a global international release for many titles over the years will no doubt help increase the use of piracy.  When a show isn’t available to watch legally, especially for shows that are already established or fans just do not want to have things spoilt or miss out on social experience, it’s no wonder fans resort to watching via alternative means.

While the excuse of existing contracts with legacy linear channels was acceptable when Disney+ first launched, to be here years later, still having the same problems, especially when fans in many countries no longer have access to Disney’s linear channels because they’ve been closed down.  It leads to frustration from fans of shows, who would be more than happy to watch on Disney+ rather than resort to piracy.  The easier companies make shows and films to watch legally, the fewer people go to alternative methods.

There are countless examples of shows recently that have been cancelled before they’ve even been released on Disney+ internationally, which has meant they were never able to get an audience, since they either weren’t released or fans didn’t bother, knowing they’d been cancelled.  

Just this week alone, Europe is only just getting the Australian series, “Artful Dodger”, that came out in November everywhere else and only today, a major new drama series, “Death And Other Details”, was released on Disney+ around the world, except for in Europe, where it will likely be released in March.    Some excuses for these delayed releases include subtitles, dubbing, just offering the entire season at once or existing linear contracts (i.e. National Geographic).

But there is little doubt that having Disney delay shows internationally does cost views, which is ultimately now proving to be impacting show cancellations. 

There is always going to be people who prefer to visit the high seas to save a few bucks on streaming services, because they’ve got more expensive and there’s simply more of them.  However, Disney drastically needs to rethink its strategy for releasing new content.

I’ve spoken on many occasions about how the idea of “Next Day On” is extremely out of date and worked when linear was the main focus, but only last week at CEO, Disney’s own advertising president, Rita Ferro, said that streaming and linear are now 50/50.  So, new releases should follow the same pattern.  It’s easier for audiences to understand, and Disney has proven it can do it.

There are always going to be exceptions, but now, with Disney cutting back on how many shows and films it releases, making global releases, should be even easier for them.   Getting a show ready for a global release means shows have to be handed in months in advance to prepare them with different language options, but even then, such as recently with the Christmas movie, “The Naughty Nine”, the release date varied between countries, even though it was handed into Disney months in advance.

The co-creator of “The Ghost And Molly McGee” has confirmed that international releases must be better coordinated to reduce piracy and help Disney+ get more viewers.    Not only that, but Disney can reduce its advertising and marketing costs, since it can promote online everywhere.  It reduces confusion when the whole world can see something at the same time, plus the social discussion about new shows and films is usually at its peak when it first comes out.  

Having a show come out in some countries three to six months after the rest of the world reduces the buzz around the project, and those who really wanted to see it probably already have done so via alternative ways.  

Disney’s already shown it can do it for its major branded titles but still hasn’t managed it for the vast majority of its new releases, and it’s impacting on many different levels.  Hopefully, Disney will eventually sort this problem out.

Do you think Disney should release new releases globally?  Let us know on social media!

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

View all posts