Who says we’re living in the most peaceful era in human history? Not only is Daenerys Targaryen slowly going cuckoo and burning people like they’re marshmallows on satay sticks, we also have Donald Trump threatening to start a nuclear war against the North Koreans. And now we have the war amongst streaming services.
In an interesting turn of events, Disney has decided to cut its ties with Netflix and start their own streaming service in 2019. This means that starting from 2019, we will no longer be able to watch movies under the Disney banner — Star Wars, MCU, Moana, etc — on Netflix.
OKAY HOLD UP JUST A SECOND. When Netflix started becoming more and more popular, we thought we could sign up for ONE streaming service and catch everything from geeky movies like Star Wars and The Avengers all the way to smaller films like The Big Short.
Netflix would mean we can all collectively flash our middle fingers to the traditional TV — except when it comes to Game of Thrones because it’s too awesome. We would get everything ON DEMAND for a CHEAPER price. But now, it seems like we have to sign up for 275 different streaming services. Even bloody CBS has a streaming service. Who on earth watches CBS?
Quick side note: This, for the most part, does not affect Malaysians as Netflix doesn’t offer Disney movies to us here anyway. But for people in the US, this could be a major pain in the ass.
But Disney promises great things. Set to debut in 2019, this Disney streaming service is set to offer various original content on top of their major movies like Star Wars, MCU stuff and most importantly HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL AKA the modern day equivalent to Casablanca — I’m so losing my job for saying that.
It’s also important to note that this is only going to be affecting Disney MOVIES, not their TV Series. So we’ll still be able to watch Jessica Jones have bed-breaking sex with Luke Cage on Netflix. At the very least, that is the current deal agreed upon by Disney and Netflix. This Disney streaming service is said to focus on more kid friendly content.
According to the LA Times, Peter Csathy, founder of the advisory firm Creatv Media had this to say:
This is a declaration of independence by Disney, and now you have a direct competition between these two behemoth players.
For now, we know that this Disney streaming service will be the EXCLUSIVE home for Disney content (mostly focusing on films) in the US.
In a statement made by the Walt Disney Company, Disney CEO Bob Iger had this to say:
Exclusive home in the US for subscription-video-on-demand viewing.
However, it is unclear at this moment if this streaming service will be available in countries outside of the US.
