New Details Emerge About Disney's Relationship With Netflix

Hunter Miller

11/08/2017 04:00 pm EST

Looks like Netflix's multi-year partnership with Disney might be coming to an end soon. Disney is poised to make its own run in the streaming service business, and this move could shake up the entire industry.

Back in December of 2012, The Walt Disney Company and Netflix signed a four-year deal to have the streaming service giant become the exclusive subscription outlet in the U.S. for content from Disney, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel Studios, and Disneynature.

While many Netflix users were initially under the impression that an overwhelming amount of Disney films would appear on the streaming service, subscribers would soon become disappointed with how the deal ended. Most of the Disney classics never appeared on Netflix and a slew of new shows and movies such as the Marvel Studios' Superhero shows such as Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, and Luke Cage were the main content to hit the streaming service.

Now that the agreement between the two media companies is up, it looks like Disney might not be renewing its contract with Netflix.

Disney might be looking getting its own over-the-top streaming service. In the event that the entertainment mammoth does decide to do so, Disney will no longer need Netflix.

Keep scrolling to see more about Disney's relationship with Netflix.

[H/T The Motley Fool]

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Even though Netflix is the top dog in the streaming game, Disney would likely be able to become a formidable competitor. With a seemingly endless collection of box-office smash hits like Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Disney undeniably has insanely successful content.

In an effort to likely develop its own exclusive streaming service, Disney has purchased a 33% stake in a digital media company called BAMTech, which has 7.5 million subscribers. BAMTech's over-the-top clients include HBO NOW, the NHL, the MLB, the PGA Tour, WWE Network, and Riot Games' League of Legends e-sports content, according to The Motley Fool.

Disney CEO Bob Iger spoke out about BAMTech during a conference call back in February.

I was at BAMTech a couple of weeks ago. And the quality of that technology has just blown us away, and the potential that we believe that has for us is enormous. ... as you know, we've invested so that we own one-third. We have a path to control. We are extremely excited about the prospects of what BAM is going to be doing near term. We will be launching a direct-to-consumer sports service sometime in probably calendar 2017, but we're also very excited about what the potential of this is long term, both for the company and for third parties who can use the product.

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While Disney may be toying with the idea of developing or purchasing its own streaming service, Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos seems to believe that the relationship with the company is still in a good place.

Ted Sarandos gave this statement at a recent conference to answer a question about renewing the contract with Netflix.

"Disney has really centered their brand on a couple of really important tent poles that performed very well on Netflix, and obviously, performed well around the world. So it's been a great relationship and continues to be a great relationship with Disney as a company producing our Marvel series as well as being their Pay 1 [post-theater movie release] partner and ... several hundred hours of their catalog all the time. So it continues to be a great partnership and they're a great supplier of content that people love..."

[H/T The Motley Fool]

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