The Walt Disney Company’s highly-anticipated streaming platform Disney+ is likely to cause waves in the local market, as reports of a potential long-term deal with Nine mount.
The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting Disney has lodged two Australian trademarks for Disney+ as the platform prepares to launch in APAC in the first half of the 2020 financial year.
Disney+ will be available in the United States from November.
And although it has now been confirmed that Disney is entering into the Australian market, it is still unclear exactly what this will look like.
Disney and Stan (owned by Nine) inked a short-term deal with the American entertainment giant last year to bring popular films like The Lion King to Australian screens.
But with this deal set to expire this year, the stage is seemingly set for Nine and Disney to enter into a long-term partnership that could threaten Netflix’s dominance on the Australian market.
“We’d love to extend our relationship with them, we’ll see whether we can or we can’t,” said Nine chief executive Hugh Marks.
Marks also said it was “unlikely” Stan would be rebranded to Disney+ and they would look at a”number of ways” to get Disney+ branding into the Australian market.
But with Disney publicly stating it wants 60 to 90 million subscribers worldwide on the platform by the end of 2024, it makes sense for the mass media company to look to tap into a preexisting audience like Stan.
Disney has also stated it is on the lookout for “distribution partners” in certain regions.
