Disney has launched its SVOD platform, DisneyLife, right on its announced schedule in the UK.
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DisneyLife is now available in the UK. |
The £9.99-a-month streaming service will include a collection of recent, semi-recent and archival Disney theatrical titles (Frozen, Toy Story, Cars, Mary Poppins), along with Disney TV shows, music, e-books and audio books.
Even though the launch is occurring across the Atlantic, it is an important market entry for the U.S. television industry to observe, with other U.S. media conglomerates, including Time Warner Inc., signaling their intention to try to monetize their programming themselves, rather than to simply license it to third-party SVOD platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
DisneyLife, which launched today, will go head-to-head with Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) in the UK market.
"Our team has worked tirelessly to create a personal, intuitive and unique experience for the whole family," said Paul Brown, general manager of DisneyLife UK in a statement. "For one monthly fee, up to six members of the family can create their own individual profile on DisneyLife using their favorite iconic Disney character. The new service will also include built-in controls so that parents can set time limits on their children's profiles for weekday and weekend use."
This is, however, not the first time Disney has tried a digital programming service. In 2012, the company shuttered its Disney Movies Online channel in the U.S. The service, launched in 2009, was a transactional platform in which consumers could buy and rent new and archival Disney film titles.
While it succumbed to the large number of choices consumers have to rent and buy movies on the Internet, analysts also blamed Disney Movies' demise on the fact that many of its titles were viewable via Netflix and Amazon Prime.
For more:
- read this Engadget story
- read this Broadband TV News story
- read this TechCrunch story
Related articles:
Netflix signs Walt Disney deal to stream ABC, Disney Channel shows
Disney to discontinue online streaming service
Time Warner reportedly looking to buy piece of Hulu, despite swearing off SVOD