Disney Channels Axed
 

The axe is falling on all the Disney channels in the UK according to Broadcast

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Portfolio of kids channels to be scrapped after failed carriage negotiations with Sky & Virgin

Disney is to close its linear channels in the UK after extensive negotiations with pay-TV providers ended unsuccessfully, Broadcast can reveal.

Staff at Disney Channel, Disney XD and Disney Junior were informed of the decision earlier this week, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.

It is understood the three channels will come off air in the autumn after extensive talks with Sky and Virgin Media ended with mutual agreements to end their carriage.

The trio will effectively become elements of SVoD service Disney+, which has quickly established itself in the UK with an estimated four million subscribers.

Disney+ will remain available on Sky, having launched as a standalone app on Sky Q set-top boxes in March, while some of its films will continue to be made available via Sky Cinema.

Natural history and wildlife channel National Geographic and entertainment channel Fox will remain on Sky and Virgin.

Broadcast understands Disney’s withdrawal from linear is specific to the UK. The company negotiates separately in individual territories and in the past year has closed a linear-only agreement in the Nordics and a pay-TV and SVoD carriage agreement with Canal+ in France.

Meanwhile, Disney+ continues to rollout across Europe, with several new territory launches revealed on Tuesday.

The news comes after Broadcast revealed Disney’s UK-based European programming chief David Levine was leaving the family entertainment giant after 16 years.

Among his duties were commissioning for Disney Channel, Disney XD and Disney Junior.

Re: Disney Channels Axed
 

Not surprised...

Re: Disney Channels Axed
 

Expected it tbf with disney+ launching i think similar will happen in all markets.

Re: Disney Channels Axed
 

It's now even more important for Virgin Media to get an agreement with Disney for the Disney+ app.

Re: Disney Channels Axed
 

That is if Disney want a agreement with Virgin Media for the Disney+ app as we simply just don't know how this is playing out behind closed doors between the two.

Re: Disney Channels Axed
 

I think it's almost certain that both parties will want this, as it would be valuable for both of them.

Virgin Media won't want to lose all Disney content from their TV service and leave Sky with another competitive advantage over them.

Re: Disney Channels Axed
 

I wouldn't at all be shocked to see Sky invest in more of its own kids content after this.

Re: Disney Channels Axed
 

But according to one poster they won't be around to invest in their own kids content.:D

Re: Disney Channels Axed
 

I think Sky will be able to mitigate this to some fashion... they will invest in more of their own originals and acquisitions, their new deal with Warnermedia specifically mentioned ‘richer’ on demand content via the Cartoon Network and Boomerang brands and I would expect them to also lean on output from DreamWorks/Illumination via their corporate relationship with NBCU (which I would expect to see scale up for Peacock too).

Re: Disney Channels Axed
 

Couldn't agree more.

Re: Disney Channels Axed
 

I expect the Disney+ subscription to increase a fair bit once this happens

Re: Disney Channels Axed
 

Sky customers will retain content via Disney+ and Sky Cinema.

Re: Disney Channels Axed
 

Just noticed the article only says SKY and Virgin, nothing about BT, Plusnet or Talktalk who also carry the Disney channels.

Re: Disney Channels Axed
 

Sounds like the carriage agreement with the two main platforms failed, so they decided to close the channels. I suspect that they were set up to fail though e.g. by asking for a ridiculously high amount.

Re: Disney Channels Axed
 

From what l can read from some of the links l read yesterday carriage talks broke down most likely because Disney wanted too much money for their content to air on Sky and Virgins channels and Sky and Virgin refused to budge from what they think is a reasonable price to pay for a carriage agreement with Disney.

Re: Disney Channels Axed
 

This would have been an opportunity for Virgin to step up and offer something Sky could not. The fact that they decided not to is most likely a combination of the high price they would have to pay and the recognition that VOD is the future.

I think we can be reasonably confident that Virgin will be bringing us Disney + by the time these channels close down.

Re: Disney Channels Axed
 

Yeah tbh tt, pn and bt won't be worth it for them as VM alone have more tv customers than those 3 combined, i did ring plusnet and ask they confirmed that Disney channels are leaving their platform at end of September but said they're hopeful Disney+ will be on youview by then.

---------- Post added at 11:25 ---------- Previous post was at 11:23 ----------

Possible especially as Disney seem to be open to Disney+ being on as many platforms as possible but it's down to vm and i wouldn't hold your breath tbh.

Re: Disney Channels Axed
 

What could they offer and why bother ?

Re: Disney Channels Axed
 

So we now know 100% that Disney Channel HD will NOT appear on Virgin Media UK. (It on Virgin Media Ireland right now).

Have not watch Disney Channel years.

Re: Disney Channels Axed
 

Because there was no Disney Channel HD, XD HD or Junior HD on Virgin UK in the first place, it makes Virgin look more competitive compared to Sky, even if it looks like a loss, they're only missing Pop Max (which is on Freesat anyway) and Boomerang HD. The remaining kids channels will take advantage of what viewing share the Disney Channels once had. The amount of missing HD channels on Virgin compared to Sky will drop slightly, now it's near enough the same amount.

Most of those who would of wanted to subscribe to Disney+ would of done so already, it's got a lot of promotion both before and after the UK launch, the difficult task is retention.

Re: Disney Channels Axed
 

I see Disney has closed channels in other countries too.

My sons grew up with Disney Channels and Fox Kids, but my grandchildren and niece & nephew never watch kids channels, they watch content via Netflix, Youtube, and Disney+.
Times have changed.

I think Disney asked for a huge fee which they knew would be turned down by Virgin and Sky, although I find it odd that both companies deals are up on the same day?

I do hope for Disney+ to come to Virgin.

Re: Disney Channels Axed
 

What do you mean? Viewers will be pretty hacked off if the Disney channels are taken off but they could not access the material they wanted to see through the Virgin box.

Why bother? Well, Sky did!

Re: Disney Channels Axed
 

Lets hope VM spend the money saved on some decent British independent broadcasting.
Talking Pictures 2 maybe ? ;)

Re: Disney Channels Axed
 

Can they not get it on Apple TV, Chromecast, Fire Stick etc?

Re: Disney Channels Axed
 

Of course they can, or even on the Sky box!

Re: Disney Channels Axed
 

I don’t see viewers being particularly hacked off then, considering streaming services have already been popular prior to being on the TiVo of V6.

Sky doing something isn’t necessarily a good reason for Virgin to follow depending on cost. They need to different their product offer somewhere.

Re: Disney Channels Axed
 

You mean 'different' as providing less? Interesting USP, have you told Virgin about this brilliant idea? :p:

Re: Disney Channels Axed
 

He never said providing less as if you understood what he was saying you would understand that.

Re: Disney Channels Axed
 

Sky aren't really doing anything to enable that. It's just Smart TV type functionality, combined with broadband. Nothing that a whole host of devices can't do, Smart TVs, Bluray players, streaming devices, PCs, Tablet computers.

Re: Disney Channels Axed
 

I'm not sure VM viewers will be hacked off but I agree that having the Disney+ app on the V6 would obviously be a good thing for viewers, VM and Disney. It's pretty clear that VM have been working to improve on their range of apps and Disney+ should definitely be the next priority.

VM now has BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, All4, My5, Netflix and Prime Video. Disney+ is already the UK's third most popular SVOD so it's only right that they should be working on getting it.

Re: Disney Channels Axed
 

You still haven't grasped the attractiveness of having all your content on one box, have you, jfman? People don't want to purchase separate equipment to access the streamers, and of course it's good to be able to search just once to see where all the content is on broadcast TV and VOD. You can also bookmark everything so it appears under 'My Shows'.

---------- Post added at 17:40 ---------- Previous post was at 17:34 ----------

Jfman said:

'Sky doing something isn’t necessarily a good reason for Virgin to follow depending on cost. They need to different their product offer somewhere.'

So what that says to me is that he thinks it is good for Virgin not to get Disney+ because that differentiates their product. Yeah, right!

How did you read it?

Re: Disney Channels Axed
 

There’s a difference between minor inconvenience and being “hacked off”, I’m sure you’d agree. I’m glad however that you’ve come to realise that for Virgin, and Sky, their days are not numbered after all in this television revolution and streamers are dependent upon them to give profile to their platforms.

You are inferring meaning to the statement that I did not make. In absolute terms you said that Sky doing something automatically means it makes sense for Virgin to do so. With no consideration of cost, or value, to Virgin.