Disney has announced it will soon be launching an online direct-to-consumer streaming service in the U.K., drawing on content from its huge video library. While the company currently has no plans for a U.S. version of the service, CEO Bob Iger hinted that a similar stateside offering could become available in the future.
The service will be dubbed DisneyLife, and will cost U.K. subscribers 9.99 pounds per month, the equivalent of $15.43 U.S. dollars. The entire Pixar library will be featured, including blockbusters like Toy Story, Monsters Inc. and Finding Nemo, as well as classics such as Snow White, Lady and the Tramp and The Jungle Book. Movies in the Lucasfilm empire including the Star Wars franchise will not be available on the service, nor will films by Marvel. Separate subscription services covering that material may be introduced at a later date.
"This is the future, in many respects," CEO Iger said. "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."
The service is set to be introduced next year in several other European territories besides the U.K., including France, Spain, Italy and Germany. Content can be streamed or read in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish, and can also be downloaded to watch offline.
Iger said that although no similar rollout is currently in the works for the U.S., a similar service could be introduced in the future. "The technology platform that this sits on is scalable to the U.S. and is scalable to our other brands," he claimed. Netflix, however has a contract about to kick in which covers pay TV window rights to Disney theatrical releases in both the U.S. and Canada, so that could be a sticking point in getting a U.S. version of DisneyLife off the ground.
Iger touted apps as the wave of the future as opposed to linear TV. "There's a general sense that the world is going in this direction," he stated. "There will be multichannel TV and we will be part of it, but the app experience offers many more layers (and) much more richness in content than a channel, where one program follows another program."
