It’s been a full year since Disney announced its intentions to go head to head with Netflix. In the battle of the streaming giants, we now have the actual name of Netflix’s biggest upcoming opponent.
A report from Variety on Friday revealed that Disney’s “Netflix-killing” streaming platform will be called – Disney Play. It’s been a long time coming. Disney’s first announced its new subscription service in August of last year. The service’s arrival will include Disney pulling its films from Netflix’s platform and relocating them to its own service, set to launch in 2019. Those films include Moana and Frozen, as well as Pixar and Marvel Studios movies like Toy Story 4 and Ant-Man and the Wasp. Both Pixar and Marvel Studios are owned by Disney.
Luckily for Netflix fans, the shift doesn’t include Marvel TV shows like Daredevil and Jessica Jones, which will remain.
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 will be the “biggest priority of the company during calendar 2019,” according to Iger. As consumers, we can only benefit for the competition and possible price war.
Despite its challengers, Netflix is still going strong: It topped Disney as the world’s most valuable media company in May with a market cap of $153.8 billion, compared with Disney’s $152 billion.
More info on The Verge:
https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/27/17787926/disney-play-streaming-service-netflix-star-wars-marvel-pixar
