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Disney+ is making all the right partnerships to give Netflix a run for its money
Set to launch streaming services on the 24th of March, Disney+ is set to launch a significant challenge for Netflix’s hegemony in the UK.
Disney’s latest service announced a partnership with Sky at the start of this month and now it has announced O2 as its exclusive UK mobile partner.
“We’re delighted to be working with Disney to bring these incredible shows and movies to our customers, demonstrating that there are more reasons than ever to join the UK’s number one network,” said O2’s CEO Mark Evans.
O2 customers will be able to stream any of the myriad of content Disney has to offer, including over 500 films, 350 series, and 26 Disney+ originals. Much like Netflix, all content will be ad-free, and available on a subscription basis.
To sweeten the deal, new and upgrading O2 customers are being offered six months free subscription, sure to snag a host of new customers.
Disney+ has already secured quite a European partnership portfolio, having joined not only with Sky and O2, but also Deutsche Telekom in Germany, Canal+ in France, and Telefonica in Spain. For the telcos among them, the motivation behind a partnership with Disney+ is obvious: as high-quality connectivity becomes more ubiquitous, network operators must find a way to broaden their appeal and set themselves apart from the crowd. Partnerships with content providers like Netflix and Disney+ are a good way to go about this – especially since Disney is such a well-established brand.
So, will Netflix be worried by this flurry of activity ahead of Disney+’s launch? It seems unlikely. Netflix has similar partners of its own and its enormous content library dwarfs Disney+’s, at least for the time being. Whilst there may be an argument for quality over quantity when it comes to content, Netflix still boast a host of award-winning shows and would likely argue that variation is the spice of life.
And, with many people set to spend an unprecedented amount of time at home over the next few weeks (or months) due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, variety could prove more important than ever.
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