According to The Verge, Disney+ and ESPN+ will run ads for the premium cable channel as part of an agreement to regain streaming rights for Disney films. Disney previously licensed out films to be streamed by Starz, like Star Wars: The Force Awakens which as we have shared, will be available on Disney+.
Here’s what The Verge has learned:
A display ad will appear on the login page for Disney+ and ESPN+, based on photos seen by The Verge. The ad will appear on Disney+’s Android app and in browsers, the person said.
A Disney spokesperson confirmed that ads are part of a revised licensing deal with Starz that was made in order to have certain titles available on Disney+ at launch. Customers will see a display ad prompting them to sign up for Starz, but there aren’t any ads within the actual Disney+ or ESPN+ service once they sign in.
Disney+ was previously advertised as 100% ad-free, with Kevin Mayer, head of Disney’s Direct-to-Consumer division, saying “Disney+ will be a wholly subscription-supported service.”
This deal with Starz is part of a problem Disney will face in the coming years as they look to regain streaming rights to tv shows and movies they licensed out for years.
Thursday evening brought some major news on Disney’s new streaming service, Disney Plus. Just 24 hrs earlier, reports began coming out that this new rival to Netflix would be launched in November of this year and some of the possible content on that new service.
Thursday evening, those rumors were put to rest as Disney not only announced the launch date but also the price and some of the new content that will be coming soon.
Courtesy of Disney
Disney+ will officially launch November 12th, 2019 and will cost $6.99 a month. This was all announced at Disney’s 2019 Investor Day in California.
When it launches, Disney+ will include 7,500 episodes of current and off-air TV shows; 25 original series and 10 original movies and specials; 400 library movie titles; and 100 recent theatrical films release, according to Agnes Chu, senior VP of content, Disney+.
It will be available on virtually any platform and will also be ad-free.
Disney+ will be the home for new releases from Walt Disney Studios, Pixar, Lucasfilm and Marvel beginning with the 2019 lineup, which includes “Captain Marvel,” “Toy Story 4,” “Dumbo,” “Avengers: Endgame,” “Frozen II,” the live-action remakes of “Aladdin” and “The Lion King,” “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil,” and “Star Wars: Episode IX.” It also features a lineup of original series and films.
It will also offer movies from Disney’s video library including all of the Star Wars films, content from NatGeo, and hundreds of episodes from Disney channel shows.
Maybe the most exciting part of this new service will be its brand new original content. Some of the programming that Disney is ramping up includes “The Mandalorian”; a prequel to “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”; the next season of Star Wars animated series “Clone Wars”; and a new series based on Pixar’s “Monsters Inc.” called “Monsters at Work.”
In addition, Disney+ is set to get several Marvel live-action series, including one centering on Loki (starring Tom Hiddleston); “WandaVision,” with Elizabeth Olsen returning as Wanda Maximoff and Paul Bettany reprising his role as The Vision; and “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” starring Anthony Mackie as Falcon and Sebastian Stan as Winter Soldier. In addition, shows are in the works featuring Scarlet Witch, played by Elizabeth Olsen, and Hawkeye, with Jeremy Renner set to reprise the role.
They will also debut new nonfiction series and behind-the-scenes looks at some of the latest in Disney movie making.
With Disney now owning a majority stake in the popular streaming service Hulu, they are looking at launching 3 separate streaming services in Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu. While not confirmed at this meeting, there is the thought out there that Disney could bundle these services together.
I don’t about anyone else but with a price tag of $6.99 and 3 young children, this will more than likely be a must in our household. It seems Disney has taken a shot at its main rival in Netflix (even as Netflix has a price hike going into effect next month).
