Updated
If you're in the middle of an Air Bud binge because you woke to the news Disney was pulling its films from Netflix, you can relax ... if you're in Australia.
Disney has announced it will be launching its own movie-streaming service in 2019, meaning Netflix subscribers in the United States will no longer have access to the likes of Frozen and Toy Story from that point.
But Netflix has confirmed Australian consumers won't be affected.
"This news is only for the US market. Our business isn't affected outside the US," the company said in a statement.
However, this could change if Disney ever decides to launch its own streaming service in Australia. This sort of thing has happened before: until Netflix became available in Australia, its shows were shown on Foxtel.
Disney says its new service will be available in "multiple markets" outside the US, but hasn't given details on which countries will be included.
What will be included in Disney's service?
In America at least, the Disney app will have the exclusive rights to Disney and Pixar movies, starting with 2019 releases like Toy Story 4 and the sequel to Frozen.
You may have heard of some of these movies too:
The service will also include TV channels Disney Channel, Disney Junior and Disney XD.
So no Star Wars and Marvel then?
Nope, not yet at least.
Disney CEO Robert Iger said his company was considering whether it should continue licensing Marvel and Star Wars movies to providers like Netflix, move them into the Disney app, or develop individual services for them.
Why is Disney doing this?
Having its own services will allow Disney to bypass the likes of Netflix and charge consumers directly for access to its massive content library.
As well, the decline in pay TV services and the rise of streaming in America has put pressure on the profitability of Disney's cable networks.
Pivotal Research Group analyst Brian Weiser says the company is "bringing the future forward", but he says it's not yet clear if Disney will be able to make big money from the move.
To help with its shift, Disney is buying a majority stake in streaming service BAMTech for $1.6 billion. That increases Disney's ownership to 75 per cent, from 33 per cent.
Meanwhile, the company is also launching an ESPN streaming sports service in early 2018. It will include baseball, hockey, soccer, tennis and college sports. (However, ESPN will not be streaming pro-American football or basketball, at least initially.)
What does this mean for Netflix? Will it be OK?
The streaming giant's shares tumbled in after-hours trading. But the company has long been reducing its reliance on deals with other content makers, instead focusing on creating its own films and TV shows like House of Cards, Stranger Things and Okja.
To that end, it's just made its first acquisition: comics publisher Millarworld.
That gives Netflix access to renowned comic book writer Mark Millar and a host of possibilities for TV shows and movies.
However, two of Millarworld's best-known comics, Kick-Ass and Kingsman, are not part of the deal, the terms of which Netflix did not disclose.
"Mark is as close as you can get to a modern-day Stan Lee," Netflix's chief content officer, Ted Sarandos, said.
Netflix last month reported second-quarter revenue of $2.79 billion and net income of $65.6 million.
What about all those Marvel shows on Netflix?
Some of Netflix's most popular shows are Marvel adaptations, including Daredevil (2015), Jessica Jones (2015), Luke Cage (2016) and Iron Fist (2017). Those characters will all feature in the series The Defenders which will be released on August 18.
Netflix says the deal which makes these shows possible is separate to the one Disney is ending.
"We continue to do business with the Walt Disney Company on many fronts, including our ongoing relationship with Marvel TV," Netflix said.
ABC/wires
Topics: television, television-broadcasting, internet-technology, internet-culture, film-movies, australia, united-states
First posted