During today's earnings call, Disney President and CEO Bob Iger announced that Disney would be pulling its movies and ending its deal with Netflix and starting its own streaming subscription service. The streaming service is expected to be launched in 2019. The deal with Netflix will end and Disney will pull its content at the start of the year in 2019.
The new service will become the exclusive in-home service in the US for on-demand of the latest live-action and animated Disney and Pixar films. This announcement came on the heels of Disney acquiring majority ownership of BAMTech, which is a global leader in direct-to-consumer streaming technology and marketing services, for $1.58 billion. Disney, which previously owned a 33% stake in BAMTech, added an additional 42% today to become the majority owner.
“The media landscape is increasingly defined by direct relationships between content creators and consumers, and our control of BAMTech’s full array of innovative technology will give us the power to forge those connections, along with the flexibility to quickly adapt to shifts in the market,” said Bob Iger, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Disney. “This acquisition and the launch of our direct-to-consumer services mark an entirely new growth strategy for the company, one that takes advantage of the incredible opportunity that changing technology provides us to leverage the strength of our great brands.”
During the call, Iger said it was unclear whether any Marvel or Lucasfilm films would be part of the new streaming service. He also stated that it was possible that each (Marvel and Lucasfilm) would have their own separate streaming services. They also said that the new service would follow the launch in 2018 of ESPN's own streaming service. It will feature approximately 10,000 live regional national and international games and events per year, including content from NHL, MLB, MLS and more.
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