Disney to launch streaming service with Marvel and Star Wars spin offs at nearly half the price of Netflix

Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) has unveiled new productions for its own streaming service that will be launched later this year, including Star Wars and Marvel TV spin offs. 

The streaming service, called Disney Plus, will be available in the US on November 12 at a price of US$6.99 a month, nearly half Netflix’s standard US$12.99 plan.

READ: European Commission seeks input on investigation into Disney pay-TV commitments

The company plans to make any new film releases exclusive to its platform and has already started pulling its content from other services including Netflix.

New productions 

Disney Plus will feature three new original Marvel TV shows: one that features Tom Hiddleston in the role of Loki from the Thor movies; a series starring Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch and Paul Bettany as Vision from the Avengers films; and another that will feature Falcon, played by Anthony Mackie, from the Captain America franchise.

Disney will also launch a TV series spin-off of the Star Wars film Rogue One, titled The Mandalorian, which will be a spy series with Diego Luna reprising his character of Cassian Andor.

The original and prequel Star Wars films will be on the service.

Disney will stream The Simpsons, after acquiring the rights to the TV show as part of its deal to buy 20^th Century Fox entertainment assets last month.

All new and existing Disney TV shows and films will be on the platform, though some of the content won’t be available until current deals with other streaming service providers expire.

Implications of Disney Plus

Analysts at Liberum said: “Disney is not a stock we obviously cover but there are some very interesting implications from their announcement yesterday of the details of their new Disney+ subscription video on demand service (SVOD).”

“For a start, it has been priced very aggressively, nearly half the price of Netflix in the United States.

“Longer-term, the more important implications are that Disney is targeting far more aggressive subscriber growth than anticipated, which raises questions about how local SVOD services such as Britbox (ITV’s SVOD JV with the BBC in the UK) will be impacted, and that Disney is now hoarding its content to use on its SVOD service, which has implications for Pay-TV services (negative) and content producers, which should become more valuable in the developing environment.”

Story by ProactiveInvestors