Massive change coming to streaming services in Australia

Disney movies will vanish from Stan accounts overnight as it prepares to launch its own streaming service in Australia on Tuesday.

The video-on-demand website, owned by the Nine Network, partnered up with Disney last year to offer Aussies family movies and TV shows at the click of a button.

But with Disney+ just a day away from launching, Stan has stripped the Disney title from its homepage, and removed all films created by the company.

From now on family favourites such as Finding Nemo, Toy Story and Frozen will no longer be available to watch on Stan, which was launched in 2015.  

However, Marvel and Star Wars movies will be available to watch on Foxtel and its streaming site Foxtel Now.

But Stan chief executive officer Mike Sneesby is adamant the service won’t be negatively affected by the loss of Disney titles.

Mr Sneesby told the Screen Australia podcast that Tuesday’s Disney+ launch will be ‘terrific for everyone in the market’.

He said Stan was able to set themselves apart in Australia by filling in the gaps in the market made by international streaming services such as Netflix.

Around one in ten programs on Stan are Australian.

‘That’s a key metric our content team has always had, was to ensure minimal duplication between us and Netflix as we buy and create content,’ Mr Sneesby said.

‘Disney has fantastic content. The brand and franchises on Stan have performed very well, but in the broader scheme of things, they are one in about 100 of our important distributors of first-run content.

‘It’s a phenomenal brand, phenomenal content, but for us it’s part of a much broader content line-up.’

Disney+ will stream Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic.

Membership will cost $8.99 per month or $89.99 for a year-long subscription.

Disney+ will stream Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic, and will cost $8.99 per month or $89.99 for a year-long subscription