Credit: DisneyIt’s official: Disney+ will launch in France in late March 2020. It will be available on the streaming platform Canal+.
On Sunday, December 15, executives from both The Walt Disney Company and Canal+ announced the deal via the French newspaper, Les Echos. Europe is the next frontier for Disney+, and viewers in England, Germany, Italy, and other Western European countries are also expected to gain access to the streaming service by March 2020.
The Canal/Disney partnership is beneficial for both sides as Disney strives to break further into the European markets, and Canal+ struggles to stand as a traditional media company against the onslaught of streamers from Netflix to Mediapro.
Canal+ chief executive, Maxime Saada, stated, “This exclusive partnership is a new major step in the transformation of the Canal+ model.”
Disney+ Boss, Kevin Mayer, also confirmed the partnership is part of the push to have 60-90 million Disney+ subscribers worldwide by 2024. Saada did not mention how much Canal+ will be charging French users for Disney+.
28 Million Customers in Five Countries
The Netherlands is currently its only foothold on the European Continent. The other countries are the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Disney’s direct-to-consumer streaming service famously earned over 10 million subscribers within the first 24 hours after launch.
By the time it had been live for a full month, over 22 million individual Disney+ app downloads were reported with the site earning 9.5 million daily users. Disney+ is now estimated to have 28 million customers worldwide.
Disney famously severed all ties with Netflix in order to bring all of its films and shows under Disney+ or Hulu in the U.S. However, this partnership with Canal+ now raises questions about how the streaming wars will proceed outside of the U.S. At this point, only time will tell.
One thing we do know is that Disney+ is on its way to the home of Disneyland Paris.
Are you subscribed to Disney+? Are you waiting for Disney+ to be available in your country? Let us know in the comments!
Source: The New York Times