Details surrounding plans for the international role out of Disney’s fabled streaming service Disney+ have been few and far between. While an Australian release date is yet to be locked in, the content powerhouse has lodged Trademarks in Australia related to the service, suggesting that an official announcement is approaching.
So far, we know that the US roll out will happen in November, with Australia following sometime in the first half of the 2020 financial year. There is also talk that Disney+ will launch with a lower subscription fee than Stan and Netflix.
At an investment meeting in April, Disney forecast that one third of the users would be US based, with the remaining two thirds coming from international markets. They’ve predicted 90 million subscribers on the service by 2024.
With the current stronghold Disney holds over IP, the streaming service will cater for fans of everything from classic Disney films, to Star Wars to Marvel, and just about everything in between. That said, the Australian roll out is very much open for speculation.
In December last year, the entertainment juggernaut signed a limited distribution deal with Nine Entertainment, which explains the massive influx of Disney content on Nine’s own streaming platform Stan.
As reported by SMH, this deal was both parties testing the waters before committing to a larger, more permanent arrangement. As such, viewers can expect these Disney titles to start vanishing from the Stan catalogue.
As the $347 billion organisation moves forward with Disney+, that arrangement may no longer be needed.
Nine chief executive Hugh Marks is very much open to continuing the deal, explaining it would make sense for Disney to enter the Australian market with a distribution partner to host their content, “without having to take the risk of going direct-to-consumer”.
“If we put Disney up on a service just on its own at the moment let alone what they might do in the future … Disney don’t make a lot of product every year,” he said at Mumbrella360 conference earlier in the week, “So you get through the Disney catalogue pretty quickly if it was a standard [streaming] service.”
While it remains unknown how it will roll out, when it will roll out or what we will be able to watch, at least we know it’s happening. And when you consider how robbed Australians are with content on current streaming services, it can’t happen soon enough.
For the time being, Australian viewers can head over to the Disney+ holding website, and sign up for more news.
Check out a report on the forthcoming Disney+ service:
