Netflix and Disney signed a licensing agreement back in 2012 which makes Netflix the exclusive subscription service in the United States for latest movies from Disney, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and Pixar. This deal will take effect later this year. Starting September 2016, Netflix will have exclusivity over all Disney films, including those released under the banners of Lucasfilm, Pixar, and Marvel.
The deal doesn’t provide Netflix will immediate access to these movies so it still has to wait after the movies have been released on Blu-ray and digital stores, but it can take pride in the fact that it will be the exclusive streaming home for these movies.
All Disney films released theatrically this year are included in this deal, though financial terms were never disclosed, it’s reported that Netflix is paying hundreds of millions of dollars per year for this privilege.
This deal makes Netflix the exclusive U.S. pay-TV home of the latest films from Disney, meaning that subscription networks like Starz and HBO can’t get them and neither can Netflix’s rival streaming services like Hulu and Amazon Prime.
Netflix can thus provide even more value for money to its subscriptions who are paying upwards of $10 per month to subscribe to its service. Bear in mind that these titles will only be available to users in the United States, those who are based outside the States will be limited to specific content libraries for their country.
Netflix is going to refresh a large part of its film catalogue over the summer, this year’s refresh has been detailed on Netflix’s blog.