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.