Disney+ and Britbox – Even more streaming services!

Amazon Prime and Netflix are currently the big players in the UK streaming market, with both offering thousands of hours of content – both original and external – but with some households only wanting to have one service rather than both and people still having to pay for their TV Licenses and services such as Sky and BT, will people accept more additions to this market?

 

Britbox:

Britbox is currently available in the US but will be available in the UK later this year.

Britbox is the latest streaming service to be announced, but this one is a little different. Currently only available in the USA, Britbox brings together BBC and ITV with all their original programming. These two companies coming together to make a streaming service would be something unprecedented in the UK but does offer some unique content.

According to reports, not only will Britbox feature new content from both production companies, but it will also have a lot of their archived shows, my own personal hope is that Britbox allows for me to watch shows such as Primeval and Waterloo Road.

Whilst this does sound like a good streaming opportunity, it may make some people question why they still pay for a TV License when a service like this is available, that being said, Britbox will not be a replacement for BBC iPlayer or ITV Hub and you will not be able to stream live TV or watch catch-up on these services.

 

Disney+:

Disney+ will be available in ‘late 2019’.

Perhaps the biggest streaming service to be announced, Disney + is Disney’s own attempt at their own streaming service, exclusively featuring their own content.

If you hadn’t noticed, some Disney content has been leaving other services – a high profile example would be the Marvel Netflix shows being cancelled – and this is all because Disney is preparing to launch their own streaming service where you can get all your Disney needs fulfilled.

Currently Disney has confirmed that their whole collection of movies will be included on this service (including films such as The Goofy Movie, Atlantis and Treasure Planet) as well as creating new content that will be exclusively shown on the platform. At the moment, Disney has quite a few projects in the works for this platform, including The Mandalorian (a show about Bounty Hunters in the Star Wars Universe) and also a series of different shows set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe such as a Loki TV Show and an animated ‘What if’ series.

The fact that Disney is developing a log of new shows, and investing a lot into this market shows how seriously they’re taking it, the other good news? According to reports, the price will be kept ‘competitive’ with other services – so the price shouldn’t be too bad.

 

Do you think you’ll be able to pick up another streaming service? Will you ditch Netflix for Disney? Or do you just stick with Live TV? Let me know in the comments!

Why the Disney-Fox purchase isn’t the worst thing in the world.

The Disney-Fox purchase is set to be concluded on the 20th of March.

Ever since it was announced last year that Disney was going to buy 20th Century Fox, a lot of people have been stating that this was a terrible thing to happen to the entertainment industry, but the truth is, it isn’t.

Whilst Disney owning more of the market isn’t the best thing in the world, Disney do know how to manage their properties and they know how to consistently produce good content and release it to the world.

One of the big stories coming out of this purchase is the fact that Marvel Studios (also owned by Disney) will now have access to the characters from the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, something they haven’t been able to have up until this purchase became possible. And to prove how well Disney can make content, you only have to look at the comparison between Fox’s attempts with the X-Men and Fantastic Four and then Marvel Studios attempts with the MCU, one has done considerably better than the other. This can only show that Disney knows how to manage its properties and how to make sure that only good content it released.

Another factor as to why this purchase isn’t terrible is the fact that Disney, themselves, have said that Fox will continue as it is under its own banner and won’t just be absorbed by the Disney companies. This means that Fox’s movie studio will continue as it is and the development of its films will continue unchanged, this being something that many people were worried about. This now means that Fox will continue to make their own movies under their own banner, including films like Avatar, Kingsman and Alien. This factor will also mean that the jobs that were at risk before the purchase will now be a lot more stable.

However, a lot of people will point to the acquisition of Lucasfilm and the Star Wars franchise as to proof that Disney might mishandle certain properties and studios. And yes, while Disney did go too fast with the Star Wars franchise and make some mis-steps (making The Last Jedi if you believe some of the fanbase), Disney did rejuvenate the Star Wars Universe and it is now bigger and more popular than it ever was before and will now even have its own theme park opening at Disneyland and Walt Disney World (something you can find more about here)

Whilst there is no way to know for sure how this purchase will affect the future landscape of the industry, at the moment Disney has stated that nothing at Fox will change (except for the Marvel characters) and that things will continue as they had done before, the only difference being that Disney will now be getting more income. Similarly, with Disney getting more income, Fox will now have the financial backing of the Disney Company meaning they should be able to create higher quality products and create even better films than before.