Families around the world are anticipating the launch of Disney+. The on-demand streaming service will let you watch content from Disney, Star Wars, Marvel and more all in one place. But Disney+ won’t be available everywhere all at once. Flixed has gathered everything that’s known about when and where Disney+ will launch.
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Disney+ Launching in the United States
Americans can register for Disney+ right now and will get full access to the streaming service on November 12. This includes the back catalog of Pixar, Star Wars and Marvel movies as well as almost every animated and live-action film from Disney’s studios.
Related: The Complete List of Disney Originals in 2019 – 50+ Originals
Pricing is remarkably low with a $7 monthly rate and a $70 annual plan. Another option is to pay $13 per month for a bundle of Disney+, ESPN+ and the ad-supported version of Hulu’s on-demand service — a 28% discount.
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What remains unclear is how Disney+ defines the United States. The streaming service will definitely be available in the fifty states and the District of Columbia. A tweet from the Disney+ account confirmed that the Disney+ launch would reach Puerto Rico on day one. However, more than six weeks later, Puerto Rico’s Movie/Network blog reported that nobody on the island could register. There’s little news about the Disney+ launch in other US territories.
Getting Disney+ Internationally
“We will launch in international markets very quickly,” Disney CEO Bob Iger told Wall Street analysts in August. People in Canada and the Netherlands will be able to join Disney+ at the same time as the United States. One week later, on November 19, the Disney+ launch extends to anyone living in Australia or New Zealand.
So far, Disney executives have not indicated when other countries will get access to the streaming service. There are several factors that will delay Disney’s rollout internationally.
First, the media giant has to renegotiate contracts with its distributors in each country. These companies already have streaming deals or exclusivity deals that let them gain the financial benefits of selling, renting or streaming Disney content.
We’re also going to enter into discussions on an international basis market-by-market with local distributors,” Iger said. “We’re already in those discussions actually.”
Given the financial stakes involved, these negotiations could take a lot of time — and money — to work through.
The second issue limiting the expansion of Disney+ are the locally-generated content rules in each country. Many countries protect their domestic film and television industries by requiring streaming services to have a certain percentage of locally-produced content in their libraries.
Streaming services operating in the European Union must allocate 30% of their content libraries to films and TV shows produced in Europe. And it doesn’t stop there. French legislators are considering a law that would require streaming services to spend 16% of their revenue on content developed in France.
Much of the content available on Disney+ was produced in the United States. That means the company will have to start buying or producing more content internationally before it can start streaming in more countries.
Chris Casper is a former tech industry product manager who escaped from California for New Mexico. Now he writes about science and tech while searching for the perfect green chile sauce.
