In this Age of Streaming, it was only a matter of time before Disney decided to put most of its mega-properties in one place.
Right on the heels of the announcement that Rian Johnson will be developing a brand new Star Wars film trilogy, the Disney has announced that a live-action Star Wars television show is in the works, along with a few others….
Disney’s streaming service is set to launch in 2019, and the shows it releases will only be available on that service (much like CBS All Access with Star Trek: Discovery). As Disney has been in talks to purchase 21st Century Fox, that would give them even more content for that service in the long run.
There is no information about the live-action Star Wars show as of yet, but it wouldn’t be the only project helping to launch the service. Disney has announced that the service will also contain a Marvel series, a show set in the universe of Monsters, Inc., and another that would be part of the High School Musical franchise.
Interestingly, Disney President Bob Iger has said that their streaming service will be “substantially cheaper” than Netflix, recognizing that they will not have the same bulk of content to work with. That seems a fair trade given that the plans for the service would offer roughly 25% of the content that Netflix has on offer.
More information is still to come.
[Via Polygon]
This is basically why I watch almost no TV at all…the number of different ‘services’ is almost overwhelming at this point and it seems like paying for all these services would add up. Not sure if it’s more or less than cable packages (we don’t have that either) but I really hate this trend of ‘exclusive’ material. Who knows, maybe in the end, just picking the services you want still ends up cheaper than a basic cable package, but I still find it irritating (especially when you only want one show). Hopefully it will eventually come out on DVD or something like that.
I suppose the other option is if they allow you to do a one-off. Both of these might have been through my existing Amazon Prime subscription, but I was willing to pay for a month’s access of HBO to watch Game of Thones, and I also got the latest season of Rebels through DisneyXD despite not having that channel in general. I intend to purchase that one for DVD anyway but I’m willing to pay for the experience of seeing it when it comes out (there are few things I’ll do that for). Actually, I think in the case of Rebels what we actually paid for was digital access to the episodes for as long as they are hosted there.
Speaking of, Emily, pleeeease do a liveblog of Rebels :) :) :) I enjoyed your Clone Wars liveblog so much and there are so many things that I honestly think, ‘man, I wonder how she would have reacted to this…’. LOL
Siggghhhhh It won’t be long and we will have to be subscribed to a dozen services to watch the ‘the good stuff’ There are already Netflix, Amazon Prime, Starz, HBO, CBS, just to mention a few that carry exclusive entertainment.
Things seem to be getting out of hand to this old man who remembers as a kid having the choice of 3 free TV channels to chose from :)
1, the classic glut of content meeting the difficulty of reaching to the customer. Now I’m trying to think of the Simpsons episode where somebody buys a big giant book or something, tears out a little piece, and throws the rest away because they only wanted that. Or the movie where they walk out after seeing the “good” part.
I would like more information about the show itself though, I hate just having the thing to talk about being the method of delivery.
Ah, what a time to be alive!
I’ve got 4 kids, so a Disney streaming service will be an easy sell in my house. I’m looking forward to this as there is great story telling going on in TV right now. I’m glad that Disney is under no illusions that they will have a ton of content and are pricing it accordingly.
Sigh. I admit I’m a bit more tempted by this than I was by CBS All Access for Discovery; if nothing else, the Disney service would have more shows on it that interest me.
Having said which, two problems with this increasing fragmentation — first, as mentioned by others, there’s a limit to how many monthly subscription fees I’m willing to support. Second, I’m not interested in something I can’t watch on my TV, which basically means there needs to be an app on my AppleTV or on my Blu-ray player or some such. I will not sit and watch shows on my computer.
@2 I second the idea! I found the Clone Wars liveblog too late to join the discussion, but I enjoyed it a lot.
I have only watched the first two seasons of Rebels, those are the only ones available in Netflix in my country yet.
The TV show will be about a family that crashes on the forest moon of Endor…
I decided a while ago, I can’t keep up with it all anymore and I’ll just stick to the theatrical releases. Kudos to those who can.
@9 I would unironically watch that! (OK, maybe with a slight tinge of irony) Cindel was my first introduction to Star Wars, and even though I now know how weird those movies really were, I still kind of love them.
Given my husband’s and my interest in superheroes and Star Wars, and my kids’ love for fairies, elves, and adventuring princesses, all Disney would really need to add would be some British period mysteries for this streaming service to meet all my household’s TV needs.
11, so you’re saying they should take the Great Mouse Detective, Rescuers Down Under, and Bedknobs and Broomsticks and make them tv serials?
@8 it is worth finding the later seasons on DVD if you can – I think they get better and better, and I think would be the jumping off point for some interesting discussions. Season 3 was my favorite so far, but I’m really enjoying 4.
Agreed, Rebels is a must see.