Okay, let me be the first to admit that, when it was first announced a year ago, I wasn’t a believer of the Disney+ service. Sure, it had all the stuff from Walt Disney as well as the Star Wars and Marvel stuff. But I’ve seen most of them and the rest I didn’t have all that much interest in. Classic live-action Walt Disney films? I’ve seen them most of them growing up. Star Wars media? I’ve watched all the movies on the big screen. What about Marvel and the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe? Ditto. National Geographic? Pass. Heck, the first official trailer of Disney+ looked bland to me as it wasn’t offering me anything I haven’t seen before.

Fast forward to today, I’m chomping at the bit with what Disney+ has to offer. I was too busy looking at what the service would have at launch that I totally failed to foresee what exclusives they would have in the future. This is especially true after the videos revealing what Disney+ has in store during the Disney Investors Day screenings which announced a slew of new stuff that’s only going to be made available on the streaming service. There was even a couple of things that weren’t revealed during the Investors Day video like that stinger for The Book of Boba Fett at the end of the last episode of Season 2 of The Mandalorian!

Now, you may be wondering how I managed to watch that post-credits scene of The Mandalorian if I don’t have Disney+. Well, probably like most Star Wars fans in the Philippines, I had to get it via more unscrupulous methods. It’s not like I want to do it but I had to because I heard so many good things about The Mandalorian and, after getting the first episode, I wanted to see more. But the mere fact they’re making a Boba Fett television series set on Tatooine and possibly taking over the Hutt crime empire on the planet, well, sign me up!

But, here’s the thing, I wouldn’t have to scour the Internet to find an alternative method of watching the Mandalorian or all the future shows and exclusives they are going to be on Disney+ exclusively. I would gladly pay the required monthly fee but I just can’t because Disney+ isn’t available in the Philippines. In fact, there isn’t any concrete news even if there are any plans to release the service in the country! So, I do have to ask: What’s the holdup, Disney? You know you’re leaving a ton of money on the table by not releasing the streaming service in the Philippines, right?

Like I said, I know a lot of people in the country who have seen The Mandalorian without getting Disney+. I have to admit that the Philippines is kind of notorious when it comes to pirating media. But it’s mostly because of a very limited market. During the original PlayStation’s heyday, I personally amassed an head-spinning number of games but only maybe one or two of them were not “fake” games. It wasn’t because the bootlegs were dirt cheap, Not at all! The only reason why I bought these unlicensed copies was due to the fact no one was selling any original PlayStation discs here!

In fact, when I got a PlayStation 2, I refused to modify the system to play pirated discs because, around that time, original games became more readily available. My friends thought it was silly of me not alter my system as bootlegs were so much cheaper but I stuck to my guns. I believe my way of thinking then is pretty much the mindset of a lot of geeks in my country now. More and more people here have foregone pirating games because original games are much easier to come by thanks to more and more gaming stores like DataBlitz opening up here.

The same thing can probably be said about streaming services in the Philippines. Sure, our Internet is still crappy for the most part but we do manage to chug along with whatever bandwidth and download times we get. I even thought it was a big mistake for Netflix to launch in the country because of how prevalent piracy was here. And yet today, Netflix has a fairly high subscriber base here. Maybe it’s just the “in thing” these days but, all the same, the subscription service has done very well for itself over here. And it does prove that there are more people who are willing to get it here, even in a third world country like the Philippines.

Speaking of third world countries getting Disney+, the thing that really does irk me about not getting the service here is other countries like India and Indonesia already have it! Oh, I’m glad they have it, thanks to a partnership with Hotstar, an international streaming service that’s big in those locations. But that just makes me wonder why no one in the Philippines is willing to do the same! You would think some Internet service provider would swoop in and help bring it here because that would make them a ton of money! But, no. It’s just not happening. I will admit that it’s astonishing Disney+ isn’t available in countries like Singapore and South Korea yet. But I can’t really think of that; I’m more concerned about making the service available here in the Philippines!

So, here’s the thing, Disney. I know you’re already making bank as Disney+ in already available in a whole mess of countries now. You might be thinking that operating the service in a boondocks country like the Philippines would be a waste of time and resources because of the entire piracy culture here. I’ve already mentioned that, if you made it available here, most of us wouldn’t have to do it in the first place! There are a lot more geeks in the Philippines who would be gladly give you our hard earned money to see things like the plethora of Star Wars stuff such as The Mandalorian and the upcoming Marvel shows like WandaVision. Heck, I’d even include some Disney media like the often forgotten but incredibly awesome Gargoyles cartoon to the stuff I’d be willing to pay to watch on Disney+.

I know you have a lot of money. But you can always want more, right?

Is Disney+ in your area? What are some of the Disney+ exclusives you’re looking forward to? Let me know in the comments section below!