Disney‘s streaming service is coming in the near future but some of the “Star Wars” content might still reside far, far away. Long before The Force was strong with Disney’s streaming service, they sold off certain rights from the franchise to AT&T Inc.’s Turner Broadcasting.
Specifically, Turner has the rights to exclusively show the films on their networks such as TNT, TBS, and online until 2024. In order to obtain the rights back sooner for Disney to stream on their service, sources say that Turner would want both “financial considerations and programming” to cover their losses from no longer having the rights. When the deal was struck, Turner paid $275 million to show all of the films and any newer ones which would become available.
Talks have not progressed past this point and with how much Disney is spending to acquire Fox’s assets, it would be questionable as to what they would want to spend here. Of course, they now have plenty of content now to help trade for it.
We know that the cornerstones of Disney’s new service will be their content, Marvel offerings, and ‘Star Wars’ content including a new television series and potentially more. Obviously, Disney would want to be able to offer up the full catalog of ‘Star Wars’ films here as well.
While it has long been practice for networks to acquire the rights to show films after theatrical releases, the rise of streaming services by the providers themselves might see a shift in that strategy. If Disney can control the viewership platform from conception to home viewing that would be a drastic shift, especially with Disney now owning so much of what we end up watching.
Do you think that Disney will be willing to spend big to regain the streaming rights to “Star Wars” or will the core films be unavailable on their network until 2024? What features do you think will they be willing to trade from Fox’s stable to make this happen? Share your thoughts below!
Source: Bloomberg
