Disney Sunsets Star+ Streaming Service in Latin America as On-Demand Consolidation Efforts Continue
The Star+ service was responsible for distributing many Disney-owned titles found on Hulu in the United States.
The stars are shining a bit more faintly over Latin America today. Disney announced this week on social media that it had executed a plan first outlined in December 2023, in which shows and movies from its Star+ streaming service are being moved to Disney+ in an effort to cut down on customer confusion and help viewers find desired titles on a single app.
Key Details:
- Henceforward, viewers who had access to Star+ will now find all of its titles on Disney+.
- The standalone Star+ platform will be available until July, when it will be shut down for good.
- Disney has made a similar move with Hulu in the United States, and will launch an ESPN tile on Disney+ in 2024.
The Star+ service launched in Latin America in 2021. It was a way for Disney to provide more mature titles to audiences without having to worry about placing adult content too close to kids shows and movies on Disney+, and also offered sports content from ESPN. Viewers could bundle Star+ with Disney+, but the two services remained standalone apps, thus requiring audiences to switch between them to watch different titles.
But as of June 26, the combination of Star+ and Disney+ is official. The company posted on X (the social media platform formerly known as Twitter) about the new integration on June 13.
🚨 TENEMOS UNA NOTICIA MUY IMPORTANTE 🚨
— Disney+ Latinoamérica (@disneyplusla) June 13, 2024
A partir del 26 de junio, llega un nuevo #DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/NqBX63R79W
Customers in Latin American countries where Star+ was formerly offered will be able to sign up for two Disney+ plans: Disney+ Standard or Premium. Both plans are ad-free as of now, but the Premium option comes with added features a higher streaming quality and the ability to download shows and movies for offline viewing. A cheaper, ad-supported plan is expected to follow shortly.
Star+ can still be found as a standalone service until July, at which point it will be shut down permanently. The change affects customers in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Bolivia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras and Venezuela.
Will Hulu Go the Way of Star+?
The division of content between Disney+ and Star+ in Latin American territories is quite similar to that between Disney+ and Hulu in the United States. Domestically, Hulu’s content was long segregated from Disney+, but that changed when the company first began moving some Hulu titles to Disney+ in December 2023, combined with robust parental controls so kids don’t stumble upon a title packed with sex or violence while they’re trying to find the new episode of “Bluey.”
There’s been plenty of speculation since that Hulu will eventually be shuttered as a standalone app the way Star+ has been, but all official word from Disney is that the two platforms will remain separate for the foreseeable future. Consolidating services allows Disney to cut down on back-end maintenance costs, but licensing agreements with content owners are keeping many titles currently streaming on Hulu from shifting to Disney+ as well.
There is one way Disney+ will move much closer to the Star+ experience in the U.S. soon. Later this year, the company intends to launch an ESPN tile within Disney+, allowing subscribers to watch live sports alongside on-demand entertainment using just one app. A global pattern of Disney combining its sports and entertainment programming on a single over-the-top (OTT) service is clearly emerging.
As long as it doesn’t lead to vastly inflated prices, the aggregation of Disney’s streaming efforts is good for consumers and good for the company. The pricing question remains very much in the air, however, as Disney looks to continue enhancing revenues from its streamers as its linear channels continue to lose viewers and its movies (along with those of other studios) continue to see uneven box-office performances.
Disney+
Disney+ is a video streaming service with over 13,000 series and films from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, The Muppets, and more. It is available in 61 countries and 21 languages. It is notable for its popular original series like “The Mandalorian,” “Ms. Marvel,” “Loki,” “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” and “Andor.”