Disney is going to launch a subscription service in the United Kingdom next month, providing users with a variety of content across the media company’s properties. Said to be called DisneyLife, the service will cost subscribers £10 ($15.50) per month, though unlike purely streaming services such as Netflix, it will offer access to books and music alongside streaming movies and TV shows from the Disney catalog via its apps.
The service will include many classic films, including Snow White, Lady and the Tramp, and The Jungle Book, reports the Financial Times. While the complete Pixar catalog will be viewable, with new items being added on an ongoing basis, content from Marvel properties as well as Lucasfilm’s Star Wars franchise will not be available. Variety reports Disney chief executive Bob Iger as suggesting separate subscriptions for Marvel and Star Wars content could become available if this is a success.
“This is the future, in many respects,” claims Iger. “We’re seeing more and more opportunities to reach consumers directly and not through middlemen, and we’re seeing consumers wanting product in different ways.” Iger suggests that apps will become more important to consumers than television, citing the multiple layers and increased richness in content in an app compared to scheduled shows on television. “There’s so much more texture to (using the app) and it takes advantage of what technology is enabling these days – whereas a linear channel doesn’t.”
After the initial UK launch, Disney is aiming to roll out DisneyLife to France, Spain, Italy, and Germany next year. While a US version of the service is not currently planned, Iger does hint it is possible. “The technology platform that this sits on is scalable to the US and is scalable to our other brands.” If it does, users cannot expect to see the latest movies straight away, as Netflix has pay TV window rights for theatrical releases that start from the end of next year.
