Disney+ UK Launch Date Confirmed

In Canada, a friend can access on their Roku, but not on a browser. However it appears going from Canada that apps are working normally.

This exact reason is why Disney have staggered the launch, by March it should be largely a fault free launch.

Worth noting that Disney have now pulled their own box sets (including ABC series) from Sky, in the midst of the launch of Disney+:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/dec/26/disney-pulls-shows-from-sky-as-it-prepares-for-uk-streaming-debut

The ABC Box Sets have been gone for months from Sky - and it’s highly unlikely things like Scandal would ever end up on Disney Plus anyway

Those ABC shows are on other services like Virgin and TalkTalk as well as Amazon so it will be more telling if those shows leave those platforms as well.

I read the fore mentioned article yesterday, it’s a bit misleading from the title. As said it’s a case of Disney shows disappearing from Sky Box Sets after the rights expire, it’s not as if they’ve all been pulled off Sky in one fell swoop. I believe shows like this aren’t on Disney+ in other territories, in the US they’d probably end up on Hulu. As far as I am aware no agreement has been reached between Sky and Disney as to what happens after Disney+ launches, so it’s still a case of wait and see.

It’s worth noting a lot of Fox content such as Futurama, The X Files, Ally McBeal and New Girl has popped up on Prime Video in the last couple of months. The above shows I personally wouldn’t expect to see on Disney+ when it launches.

It appears to be the writer adding two and two together to make 15 tbh - ABC prime time programmes won’t be going to Disney+ and there’s been no indication of any Hulu launch in Europe yet.

Yep - using the word 'pulled' is very sloppy. That would suggest ABC/Disney have removed their content for a contractual breach or similar. What this seems to be is a non-renewal of rights agreements at the end of a regular licensing period - which is a long way from 'pulling'.

Worthwhile mentioning this in this thread rather than starting one.....

Disney dropping references to 'Fox' in their acquired assets

20th Century Fox film studio will become 20th Century Studios,
and Fox Searchlight Pictures will become Searchlight Pictures.

Disney drops Fox name from 20th Century film studios and Searchlight https://t.co/d816KnqtqM

— Media Guardian (@mediaguardian) January 17, 2020

Guess that answers the question of who got the rights to the Fox brand (at least in the US) in the divorce - Fox Corporation. (Although it’s kind of obvious that it would have been given the name). Wonder if the international Fox channels will get new names in due course.

The article seems to imply it was dropped because of the association with Fox News rather than the rights to the name not belonging to them?

If Sky Disney vanishes from Sky Movies and isn’t available in any form that will be a massive blow to Sky, they certainly couldn’t keep charging what they do for Sky Movies and the service will be rather baron... Disney+ already makes Sky look significantly less appealing.

Luckily, their iconic searchlight logo and fanfare music is staying, which I'm quite happy about as they cannot take away a movie icon such as this logo.

Though it'd be nice if the fanfare got a new recording for 2020 to keep it fresh for the 21st century. Their current version of the fanfare has been around since 1997.

To be pedantic Sky "Movies" doesn't exist anymore. You obviously mean Sky Cinema

Note that Sky Cinema does not purely consist of what goes out on the channels. You get the on-demand offerings too, the "enhanced" picture quality ("increased by a third over regular HD. The number of colour shades is multiplied by 4 too."), HD as standard and 4k on Sky Q. Also the "original films", but ones mileage tend to vary with these.

And price wise, well anybody who pays attention to these things doesn't pay full price for Sky Cinema anyway. Whether you think its worth £19 a month on top of your Entertainment pack is a decision for you.