In the battle of the streaming giants, we now have the actual name of Netflix’s biggest upcoming opponent. A report from Variety Friday has revealed Disney’s “Netflix-killing” streaming platform will be called “Disney Play”.
It’s been a long time coming, after Disney’s first announcement of its brand-new subscription service in August last year. This will involve Disney pulling its films from Netflix’s platform and relocating them to its own service, to be launched in 2019. Those films include Moana and Frozen as well as Marvel and Pixar movies like Toy Story 4 and Ant-Man and the Wasp, both studios acquired under the giant’s umbrella.
Luckily for Netflix fans, that doesn’t include Marvel TV shows like Daredevil and Jessica Jones, which will remain on the streamer.
As for how much the subscription service will cost, Variety cites Disney CEO Bob Iger as acknowledging it will be less than Netflix’s $8 to $14 monthly fee. The service, in general, is Disney’s “biggest priority of the company during calendar 2019,” according to the CEO. Despite its challenges, Netflix is still going strong: It topped Disney as the world’s most valuable media company this May with a worth of $153.8 billion, compared with Disney‘s $152 billion.
2019 will see the debut of Toy Story 4, Frozen 2, and live-action remakes of animated classics The Lion King, Dumbo, and Aladdin. Those titles will be released in theatres and then be available on Disney Play, however, they do have a couple of titles that will be exclusive to the streaming service – such as Lady and the Tramp and director Jon Favreau’s live-action Star Wars series.
Source: Variety
