In Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, Disney+ will see the debut of a new block on its streaming service which is meant for more general entertainment access. The Star block, named after Disney’s recently-rebranded Star streaming service, will carry a variety of adult-audience showsfrom 20thCentury Fox-affiliated sources.
At launch, the Star block will include shows likeBig Sky, 24, Lost, Desperate Housewives, Black-ish, Atlanta,andHow I Met Your Mother,as well as theDie Hardfilm franchise. This will apparently not influence each show’s broadcast rights outside of Disney+/Star, so any other networks that happen to feature them such as Amazon Prime Video will continue to do so.
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Star is planned to be the sixth brand on Disney+, following Marvel, Pixar,Star Wars,National Geographic, and Disney itself. The plan is that Star, by itself, will double the amount of content available on Disney+, as well as providing a place for Disney+ to host the more adult-friendly entertainment that’s become part of the company’s portfolio, rather thanthe family fare that’s availableon the other five programming blocks. Since Star seems to mostly hold Fox content at this point, that offers options likeAlien, Predator, Avatar, Kingsman, Lake Placid,andThe Exorcist.
The plan by Disney was (eventually, after some confusion) to use Hotstar’s infrastructure to build out a Hulu-style general entertainment platform, with programming taken from Disney-owned networks like ABC, FX, 20thCentury Studios, Freeform, and Searchlight. This is apparently the new plan for Disney’s streaming expansionoutside of Hulu, which Disney ownsbut which is still virtually unknown outside of North America.
Disney+ will be updated to include the Star block in all affected countries on February 23rd.
