Disney is gunning for a second streaming service as the company announced they will launch a new international streaming service under their Star brand. The service will offer library content from the company’s wide-ranging brands such as ABC Studios, FOX Television, FX, Freeform, 20th Century Studios and Searchlight.
The news comes as Hulu, which offers more mature programming than Disney+, has yet to expand internationally, and now it looks like those plans are on hold for good.
“In terms of the general entertainment offering internationally, we want to mirror our successful Disney+ strategy by using our Disney+ technical platform, bringing in content we already own and distributing it under a successful international brand that we also already own, which is, of course, Star,” CEO Bob Chapek explained during the company’s Q3 2020 earnings call.
“Hulu aggregates third party content, where this will not. This will be rooted in our own content … and Hulu has no brand recognition outside of the U.S. nor does Hulu have any content that has been licensed to it internationally. This gives us the ability to market under the Disney umbrella and have synergies with our existing platform.”
The company also revealed they will release “Mulan” on Disney+ on September 4, but it won’t be included in your subscription. Instead, the film will be released as a premium on-demand offering for $29.99. The company didn’t say whether it would be a purchase or rental –- and how long you would have access to that film.
They also announced Disney+ reached 60.5 million subscribers as of August 3, having reached 57.5 million subscribers at the end of the third quarter in June 2020. That’s up six million subscribers from the 54.5 million the company reported on May 4 in their Q2 2020 earnings call.