Disney Ups Stake in BAMTech to 75% Share, Will Pull Its Films From Netflix
A year after spending $1 billion to acquire 33 percent of BAMTech as the springboard to launch an ESPN-branded subscription streaming service for live sports (see 1608100024), Disney announced Tuesday it will pay $1.58 billion more to buy an additional…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
42 percent of the streaming-technology company. Disney also will launch its long-awaited ESPN-branded “multi-sport video streaming service” in early 2018, followed by a new Disney-branded direct-to-consumer streaming service in 2019, said the studio. Launch of the ESPN-branded service has had several delays. Disney CEO Bob Iger first indicated plans to launch it in 2016, then sometime in 2017, and now early 2018. The service will feature about 10,000 live regional, national and international games and events a year, including from Major League Baseball, National Hockey League, Major League Soccer, Grand Slam tennis and college sports, Disney said. With the new “strategic shift” toward a Disney-branded service, “Disney will end its distribution agreement with Netflix for subscription streaming of new releases, beginning with the 2019 calendar year theatrical slate,” it said. “Plans are for the Disney and ESPN streaming services to be available for purchase directly from Disney and ESPN, in app stores, and from authorized MVPDs.” Netflix didn’t comment.