Thought that Disney would be scraping together all their precious Marvel content for exclusive streaming on their streaming service? Well, think again.
A recent report from the website Bloomberg has revealed that Disney won’t be taking back their Marvel films from Netflix for good. Why? Because under Disney’s current agreement with Netflix, every Disney movie released between January 2016 and December 2018 must return to the streaming giant around 2026. There, they will remain Netflix exclusives.
This means that the likes of Doctor Strange, Captain America: Civil War and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 could be returning to Netflix’s virtual shelves. Not only that but other Disney-owned content from Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Coco could be among the returnees, given that they too were released during the same period of time.
If true, this could be something of a relief for Netflix. The streaming giant which has ruled the streaming roost since 2007, relies heavily on its ‘borrowed’ content from other film companies. They only started making Netflix Originals until a few years into their service, and thus, content from other studios makes up the majority of their current programming.
Amidst fears that the loss of content and the rise of Disney+ could do financial damage to Netflix, they’ll at least have some major Marvel programming to fall back on some years down the road if things go awry.
However, analyst Matt Nathanson, from the independent research boutique MoffetNathanson LLC, isn’t worried about the Disney situation or other cutbacks on back titles (The Office leaving Netflix in 2021 for example). “The loss of back titles will not kill Netflix or slow subscriber growth. It just forces them to make more original content,” he said.
Indeed, by the time the year is done, the company will have produced 1,000-plus original programming – with even more undoubtedly on the way. Disney may have reason to be worried.
They’ll be needing it if they want to challenge competitors like Disney+, NBCUniversal and AT&T.
Who will win the battle of the streaming wars? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
