Disney+ To Launch In The US In Nov 2019. Still No UK Launch Date.
Disney has officially announced the launch date for their streaming service Disney+ in the UK – 31st March 2020. It will also come to Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and more territories to be announced soon, on that date.
Whilst I know the delay behind the US (which launches on 12th November this year) will be disappointing to UK fans, that is likely due to Disney having a number of content deals in place with UK and European partners, such as Sky, and they need them to lapse to reclaim their tv shows and movies.
What About DisneyLife?
You may be aware, Disney does already have a streaming service in the UK called DisneyLife. That will be rebranded into Disney+ in time for the March launch. If you have a subscription to that service, they will release details on how to transfer your sub over onto the new streaming service.
What Will Be On Disney+ in the UK At Launch?
At the moment, we don’t know exactly… It will contain the Disney+ original series which are going to be available in the US at launch. That includes ‘The Mandalorian’, ‘High School Musical: The Musical: The Series‘, Forky Asks a Question’, which features ‘Toy Story 4’s Forky asking important questions about how the world works, and ‘SparkShorts’, which is a series of Pixar shorts designed to discover new storytellers and explore new storytelling techniques from across the studio.
They will also have unscripted series such as ‘Encore!’, which reunites former castmates of a high school musical to re-creating their original performance in a high school reunion like no other; A documentary series chronicles the 65+ year history of Walt Disney Imagineering; ‘Marvel’s Hero Project’, which sees Marvel celebrates real-life young heroes who have dedicated their lives to selfless acts of bravery and kindness; And ‘The World According to Jeff Goldblum’, which sees Jeff pulls the thread on deceptively familiar objects, such as sneakers or ice cream, and unravels a wonderful world of astonishing connections, fascinating science and history.
In addition to those, there is Marvel’s ‘The Falcon and The Winter Soldier’, which wasn’t available at launch in the US, but is coming in “year one” of Disney+, so it would seem likely, they would aim to get that on, or pretty soon after, the European launch date. Also coming in “year one” is ‘Lamp Life’ starring ‘Toy Story’s Bo Peep; ‘Monsters at Work’ which sees Billy Crystal and John Goodman reprise their ‘Monsters, Inc.’ characters; ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ which returns for a brand new 12-episode season; ‘Diary of a Female President’ which follows a Cuban-American 12-year-old girl as she navigates the ups and downs of middle school and her journey to becoming the future president of the United States; And animated series ‘Marvel’s What If…?’, which takes an alternate reality look at pivotal moment from the MCU and turn it on its head.
In addition to all of the new original, there will be a back catalogue of Disney & Marvel, films and tv shows, along with various other properties they own. Exactly what that catalogue will be for the UK has not yet been announced, although, it is likely to vary a little from the catalogue announced for the US.
How much will it cost?
Unknown at the moment, but Disney UK says they “have a few different price plans for Disney+ and we’ll be announcing details soon.” To give you some idea, in the US it costs $6.99 per month or $69.99 for a year, so expect something similar here.
We’ll bring you more news as we get it, but Disney+ UK launch date is 31st March 2020.
