The streaming wars have officially begun y’all. Even though Disney+ doesn’t launch for a little over a month, the company as a whole is already taking a few big swings at other streaming services. Chief among those is Netflix as the House of Mouse revealed plans this week to ban Netflix ads from ABC, FX, and Freeform; three networks owned by the multimedia giant. The Wall Street Journal first reported the news of Disney’s ban.
Disney will still reportedly run Netflix ads on ESPN but has also announced a plan to scale back ads for all streaming services not directly related to the company. That means there will likely be A LOT more of those ‘Hulu has live TV’ ads as we race towards November 12th, when Disney+ launches (with that monster ESPN+/Hulu/Disney+ bundle in tow).
This move signals how serious Bob Iger and company are about Disney+; as if their upcoming content wasn’t already enough. Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian will be dropping on the service when it launches. There are also no less than 7 Marvel series in development, with at least 4 of those dropping before the end of 2021. And that’s not all folks as reboots of both Lizzie McGuire and The Proud Family are reportedly in development. Disney’s coming for the streaming crown with this one.
Disney+ will launch worldwide on November 12th.
