Disney is re-licensing its older shows to free-to-air networks, Seven and Nine.
👉 Background: Disney launched its streaming platform Disney+ in November 2019, which now has more than 3 million subscribers in Australia alone.
👉 What happened: When Disney+ launched its streaming service, it started to pull its content from other networks and platforms. The idea was that it would build its own streaming service into an exclusive content base.
👉 What else: But now, Disney has done a bit of an about-face. Its older shows like Prison Break and Ghost Whisperer have been licenced to Seven while shows like M*A*S*H and Homeland are on 9Now - because not all content is equal.
💡The streaming market is now a highly competitive and saturated market, and the economics are much tougher than they were originally forecasted.
While selling content to other networks wasn’t part of the master plan, it can help fund content budgets.
💡And this could help fund shows that could become the next big thing. Think: Squid Game for Netflix, Ted Lasso for Apple+ or The Mandalorian for Disney+.
💡 Disney isn’t going to license its premium content. But for the older, second-tier content (ahem looking at you Ghost Whisperer) – it kinda makes sense. They ain't drawing in the big audiences.
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