Walt Disney Company confirmed that it will remove its Star Wars and Marvel films from Netflix alongside its Disney and Pixar films, and will put them on its upcoming streaming service.
Disney CEO Bob Iger cleared up speculation today, telling the crowd at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media’s Communications and Entertainment Conference that the Star Wars and Marvel films would be a part of its streaming service, which is due to launch in 2019, reports Variety.
When Disney announced the streaming service last month, the company did not yet have an answer on the fate of the Star Wars and Marvel films. The service which will house Disney and Pixar films along with original films and series.
Iger said during Disney’s earnings call that the company had talked about launching proprietary services for its Star Wars and Marvel films, and the company was also considered including those services with the upcoming Disney direct-to-consumer service. Disney is set to end its first window deal with Netflix beginning with its 2019 slate of films, which is scheduled to include Star Wars Episode IX, Frozen 2 and Avengers 4.
While the launch of Disney’s streaming service is still years off—and set to be proceeded by the launch of an ESPN streaming service—analysts have begun to speculate about the cost and consumer interest impact of the service.
UBS reviewed content that could be a part of the services, looked Evidence Lab survey results, analyzed Nielsen data streams and compared ESPN and Disney OTT to other services in the market already in an effort to gauge potential interest in Disney’s upcoming streaming services.
“Overall, we expect healthy interest in Disney OTT, while ESPN OTT is only serving small niches,” wrote UBS analyst Doug Mitchelson in a research note.
Media analyst Michael Nathanson predicted that Disney’s streaming service will likely be priced around $5 per month.
“As we’ve pointed out in all of our work on vMVPDs, pricing matters and consumers have signaled that internet-delivered services should be priced materially below traditional products to drive broader adoption. Disney’s pricing strategy will be a key gating factor in determining the rates of adoption. If there are truly complementary services, it would be logical to offer a lower price point to consumers to denote the ‘add-on’ intention of Disney vs. a higher price point, would could signal a replacement option,” wrote Nathanson.