In Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, Disney+ will see the debut of a new block on its streaming service which is meant for more general entertainment access. The Star block, named after Disney’s recently-rebranded Star streaming service, will carry a variety of adult-audience shows from 20th Century Fox-affiliated sources.
At launch, the Star block will include shows like Big Sky, 24, Lost, Desperate Housewives, Black-ish, Atlanta, and How I Met Your Mother, as well as the Die Hard film franchise. This will apparently not influence each show’s broadcast rights outside of Disney+/Star, so any other networks that happen to feature them such as Amazon Prime Video will continue to do so.
Star is planned to be the sixth brand on Disney+, following Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars, National Geographic, and Disney itself. The plan is that Star, by itself, will double the amount of content available on Disney+, as well as providing a place for Disney+ to host the more adult-friendly entertainment that’s become part of the company’s portfolio, rather than the family fare that’s available on the other five programming blocks. Since Star seems to mostly hold Fox content at this point, that offers options like Alien, Predator, Avatar, Kingsman, Lake Placid, and The Exorcist.
No word has been offered yet regarding a similar update for American subscribers to Disney+. Star is the new branding for what was formerly known as Hotstar, a popular streaming service from the Indian conglomerate Star India. Disney acquired Star India in 2019, subsequently rebranding Hotstar as Disney Plus Hotstar, and then Disney’s Star India.
The plan by Disney was (eventually, after some confusion) to use Hotstar’s infrastructure to build out a Hulu-style general entertainment platform, with programming taken from Disney-owned networks like ABC, FX, 20th Century Studios, Freeform, and Searchlight. This is apparently the new plan for Disney’s streaming expansion outside of Hulu, which Disney owns but which is still virtually unknown outside of North America.
Disney+ was launched in 2019 in North America, and at this point, reportedly has just under 87 million subscribers. It’s currently slated to debut in Singapore in February, followed by eastern Europe, Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea later in the year.
Disney+ will be updated to include the Star block in all affected countries on February 23rd.
Source: Variety
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