Disney News

Tag: streaming service

  • Oswald the Lucky Rabbit TV Series in the Works for Disney+

    Oswald the Lucky Rabbit TV Series in the Works for Disney+

    Oswald the Lucky Rabbit may be getting his own series on, Disney’s new streaming service, Disney+.

    Disney hasn’t made an announcement about the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit series, but writer Christopher Painter (SpongeBob SquarePants) seems to have confirmed the new project.

    His online resume lists a new series called Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in the “Animated Television” section. Painter lists himself as a writer on the series for “multiple episodes.”

    Oswald the Lucky Rabbit is an anthropomorphic rabbit and animated cartoon character created by Walt Disney for cartoon animal films and distributed by Universal Studios in the 1920s and 1930s, serving as the Disney studio’s first animated character to feature in their own series. A total of 27 animated Oswald one-reelers were produced at Walt Disney Animation Studios (the Walt Disney Studio at the time).

    In 1928, Charles Mintz took the rights of Oswald from Walt Disney and claimed Oswald as an official Universal Studios character. In November 1928, as a replacement to compete with Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks created Mickey Mouse for the Walt Disney Studio.

    It wasn’t until 2006 that The Walt Disney Company was able to re-acquired the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit back from NBC Universal. ESPN’s parent company traded the contract of NFL play-by-play analyst Al Michaels to NBC Universal in exchange for various sports considerations and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

    Disney says its new streaming service, Disney+, will cost $6.99 per month when it launches in the U.S. on November 12.

  • Disney’s Vault Program Ending as Entire Library is Added to Disney+ Streaming Service Catalog

    Disney’s Vault Program Ending as Entire Library is Added to Disney+ Streaming Service Catalog

    Disney’s streaming service, called Disney+, is scheduled to launch later this year. On Thursday, Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger revealed that the new service will eventually house the entire Disney Studios Library effectively ending the company’s long standing ‘Vault’ Program.

    Iger told shareholders that Disney+ “at some point fairly soon after launch” will carry films that “traditionally have been kept in a ‘vault’ and brought out basically every few years.”

    Disney’s catalog of films dates back to the 1920s, and includes iconic films such as “Snow White” and “Bambi” alongside modern classics like “Frozen” and “Wreck-it Ralph”. Traditionally however, Disney has only made individual titles available on home video for limited periods of time.

    The “Disney Vault” has been a marketing and sales strategy for years. After a film’s initial release run, Disney would return the film to the vault for a long period of time. That meant that customers who didn’t buy a physical copy of the movie immediately would be out of luck until Disney brought it out of the vault as a new edition or a special release run.

    In addition to archived titles, Disney has announced a number of big projects in development exclusively for its streaming service. Those include a “Star Wars” series called “The Mandalorian“, which is set during the rise of the Resistance; an untitled Marvel series revolving around Loki that will involve Tom Hiddleston; another “Star Wars” series called “Cassian Andor” that follows the titular hero in “Rogue One” played by Diego Luna; and yet more projects that span everything from “High School Musical” to a series based on Pixar’s Monsters, Inc.

    A content hub of its very own also means that Disney will be pulling all of its titles from other streaming services, with “Captain Marvel” being the first MCU movie to stream exclusively on Disney+.

  • Disney Reveals New Streaming Service Will Be Called Disney Plus

    Disney Reveals New Streaming Service Will Be Called Disney Plus

    Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger announced yesterday during a live audio webcast of Disney’s fiscal full year and fourth quarter 2018 financial results that the name of Disney’s new direct-to-consumer streaming service is Disney+.

    Disney’s new DTC (direct to consumer) streaming service is meant to be a direct competitor with Netflix and hopefully give the company a serious foothold in the streaming market.

    One thing this new service has is lots of content, but still Disney is planning on making more. Disney also announced its plans for a second Live action Star Wars series as well as a Marvel series centered around a fan-favorite character from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

    The new projects join an impressive slate of films and series planned for Disney+ that includes new stories set in the worlds of Disney•Pixar’s Monsters Inc. and Disney Channel’s High School Musical, as well as a galaxy far, far away. Earlier this year, Lucasfilm revealed that Emmy-nominated producer and actor Jon Favreau will write and executive produce The Mandalorian for Disney+.

    Once ties are severed with Netflix for good, Disney will be losing an estimated $300 million in annual revenue from Netflix for pay-TV rights. Beginning in 2019, Captain Marvel and every Disney film released in theaters will no longer head to Netflix and instead will make their way to Disney+. Ant-Man and the Wasp will now be the last Marvel movie to come to Netflix.

    Disney+ is scheduled to launch in the U.S. in late 2019.

  • Disney Announces Marvel TV Series Based on Loki Starring Tom Hiddleston

    Disney Announces Marvel TV Series Based on Loki Starring Tom Hiddleston

    Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger confirmed yesterday that Marvel is in development of a live-action series for the company’s new direct-to-consumer streaming service called Disney+.

    To help Disney+ complete with Netflix, the company is assembling a live-action series centered around a fan-favorite character from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Iger confirmed during Disney’s latest earnings report that Marvel Studios is developing a series based on Loki and Tom Hiddleston will be reprising his role as the god of mischief.

    Disney+ will debut in the United States sometime in late 2019. It’s unclear when the Loki show will debut, how many episodes there will be, or what the plot will be, but thankfully the rumor of a live-action series centered around Loki isn’t just more mischief from the demigod trickster from Asgard.

    We don’t know where in Marvel’s timeline this new series will fit into, but it will be interesting to see given the character’s fate in Avengers: Infinity War.

    Iger also announced that Lucasfilm is developing a second Star Wars live-action series for the new service. Stay tuned to Disney Dorks for the latest updates.

  • RUMOR: Disney’s Streaming Service May Have Finally Found a Name

    RUMOR: Disney’s Streaming Service May Have Finally Found a Name

    Disney’s new DTC (direct to consumer) streaming service is meant to be a direct competitor with Netflix and hopefully give the company a serious foothold in the streaming market.  Well now details have emerged and Disney’s upcoming streaming service may finally have a name and no it’s not “Disneyflix”.

    According to Variety, Disney CEO Bob Iger has referred to the service as Disney Play. At this point it’s unclear if this will in fact be the final name for the video platform or if it’s more of a working title.

    Once ties are severed with Netflix for good, Disney will be losing an estimated $300 million in annual revenue from Netflix for pay-TV rights.

    Beginning in 2019, Captain Marvel and every Disney film released in theaters will no longer Netflix and instead will make their way to Disney Play. Ant-Man and the Wasp will also now be the last Marvel movie to come to Netflix.

    Regardless of the final name Disney’s steaming service is set to launch sometime in 2019.

  • Disney Streaming Service Will Not Include R-Rated Content

    Disney Streaming Service Will Not Include R-Rated Content

    Disney’s upcoming streaming service is moving full steam ahead and more details are starting to emerge about what types of content the service will offer. Last August Disney announced plans to debut its own streaming service in 2019 with content like Star Wars and Marvel movies, Disney studio and Pixar films.

    The programming for the over-the-top content service will be consistent with the Disney brand and there will be no R-rated films, according to a recent report from Deadline. So Marvel’s series currently on Netflix will stay where they are for now, and any R-rated content will reportedly go to Hulu instead of the Disney streaming service.

    As we previously reported, Disney-ABC TV will providing original content for the service that would include feature-length films regular series and he also touted a “High School Musical” reboot, with the original producers on board.

    Walt Disney Company chairman and CEO Bob Iger already confirmed a live action Star Wars Series and a TV series based on the 2001 Pixar film Monsters Inc. were in the plans for the future streaming service, at a quarterly earnings call with investors.

    Disney is also reportedly prioritizing new movies, including Lady and the Tramp, The Paper Magician, Stargirl and Togo. Other projects in development are 3 Men and a Baby, Sword and the Stone, and Timmy Failure, according to the report.

    Also be heading to the streaming service will be Magic Camp and Noelle, two movies currently in post-production. The shows may cost $25 million to $35 million for 10 episodes, though a more ambitious series could go up to $100 million, the report said.

    There has been no mention of a price point as of yet and the Disney plans to start with a domestic service only, and then expand overseas.

     

  • Former Apple Exec Hired To Head Disney’s Streaming Service

    Former Apple Exec Hired To Head Disney’s Streaming Service

    Disney has been looking for the right person to head up their forthcoming online streaming endeavor and it looks like the search is complete. Former Apple and Samsung executive Kevin Swint has been hired, by Disney’s BAMTech Media, to build and run Disney’s Streaming Service.

    Swint is being brought as senior vice president and general manager in hopes that the experienced tech execs leadership can help the service truly rival Netflix. His resume includes leading the movie group at Apple iTunes, and most recently as VP of Samsungs product/content & services.

    With the massive amount of titles Disney has acquired in recent years, including Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and now 20th Century Fox’s catalog, it seems Swint has a large toy box to play in, but he still has a lot of work to do on the still unnamed streaming service.

    It’s widely known that with Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox gave them controlling interest in Hulu, but Disney has already been laying the groundwork for their streaming dreams when last year Disney also acquired a large stake in the streaming solutions provider BAMTech for $1.58 billion. Though Disney already owned stake in BAMTech, but Disney now holds majority ownership with in this company as well.

    Any new service likely won’t see any Fox content for quite some time as regulators are expected to take as long as 18 months to approve the deal. What exactly Disney’s Streaming Service will finally look like is still taking shape, but Disney is confident they found the right man for the job. The streaming service is set to launch in 2019.

  • Disney’s Streaming Service Has New Details Revealed

    Disney’s Streaming Service Has New Details Revealed

    With Disney’s Streaming Service in the works and their integration of the recently acquired 20th century Fox assets on the horizon, big questions are left about what content the streaming service will provide. Well during Variety’s Entertainment Summit at CES 2018 on Thursday, Disney-ABC TV president Ben Sherwood was able to share some details.

    The streaming service is set to launch in 2019 and with the massive amount of titles Disney has acquired in recent years, including Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and now 20th Century Fox’s catalog, it seems Disney has put itself in a prime position to rival Netflix.

    Sherwood, said that his division will be the largest contributor to Disney’s subscription service and that the company overall is well poised to manage the transition to next-generation TV in his statement at the summit.

    “We’re going through this unbelievable moment of transformation in how we take television and distribute it,” said Sherwood.

    The exec explained that Disney-ABC TV will supply between seven and eight thousand episodes from its own library. He also confirmed they would be providing original content for the service that would include 3-4 feature-length films and 3-4 regular series and he also touted a “High School Musical” reboot, with the original producers on board.

    Walt Disney Company chairman and CEO Bob Iger already confirmed a live action Star Wars Series and a TV series based on the 2001 Pixar film Monsters Inc. were in the plans for the future streaming service, at a quarterly earnings call with investors.

    Sherwood, declined to comment on the pending acquisition by Disney of 20th Century Fox assets, including cable networks, in a report from Variety. Disney CEO Bob Iger has “laid out the strategic vision” for the deal, “and we’ll leave it at that”, he also told them.

    We’ll have to wait and see, but we’re sure you’ll end up seeing many of the various new properties Disney has acquired airing on their new streaming service in addition to their already existing massive library.