Did the former Disney CEO really just throw shade at Apple TV+?

Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner today did what one does on Twitter, whether you're a billionaire, a president, a billionaire president — or just one of the peasants. He trolled. And it was a decent troll, at that, taking aim at the quality of content on Apple TV+ thus far on the same day that Disney+ launched..

"Have seen all the original shows on @AppleTV's new streaming service," Eisner tweeted. "One of them is great, two good, and one forget; and I'm not saying which. Good start for #Apple"

And he's not wrong. That's about how I'd rate things as well. At first blush his tweet could well be taken as a trolling attempt. Apple's definitely had a mixed bag of content — some good, some not so good. And adding insult to injury was the news that the head of scripted content for Apple TV+ has been "realigned." (His job, anyway. Presuably he's still in fine shape.)

But is he trolling Apple? Or praising Apple? Three out of four shows are more-than watchable. That's a great batting average, to say nothing about success in the land of television, which is anything but a foregone conclusion.

There's just one other additional problem: Apple TV+ launched just fine on Nov. 1. If you wanted to watch any of the four original series Apple had ready to go — The Morning Show, See, Dickinson and For All Mankind — you could.

Disney+, on the other hand, has something like a million shows and movies and series, some new originals, and many old favorites. But it also has had some serious issues when it comes not just to sign-ups, but also being able to stream shows if you'd preordered before launch day.

That's no good, especially when you consider that Disney has spent the months since it announced Disney+ crowing about the technology behind the service. It purchased Bamtech, which also has sucessfully powered ESPN+ through a number of large live sporting events, and it now is the exclusive home to UFC PPV events.

https://twitter.com/DisneyPlusHelp/status/1194268462283018241

So maybe we just take Eisner's tweet for what it was: A reminder that good content is hard to create. But so, too, is the ability to push it out digitially to even just a few countries at one time in 2019.