Disney + is preparing to increase the price of its subscription in Europe. From February 2021, subscribers will have to pay € 8.99 per month, or € 2 more, for new content. The streaming service has added a “Star” section dedicated to more adult and mature series and films. One will find there in particular the films of Fox.
This Thursday, December 10, 2020, Disney + announced the arrival of Star, a new category including content for adults, in its catalog. Determined to threaten the domination of Netflix, the platform will integrate more mature series and films in Star, which will be like a “Hulu” internationally. Popular in the United States, Hulu is a VOD service owned by Disney that offers an extensive catalog of series and films, including “The Scarlet Maid”. Hulu has 38 million paid subscribers in the United States and will continue to coexist with Disney + in the American market.
Star will be added to the 5 categories that already make up the Disney + catalog: Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar and National Geographic. The addition of Star is accompanied byan increase in the subscription price. In Europe, subscribers will now have to pay two euros more every month, or € 8.99, as of February 23, 2021. For current Disney + customers, the increase will not take effect until 6 months later (in August 2021). If this new offer tempts you, you have every interest in subscribing to Disney + before next February.
The integration of this new section for adults is therefore not optional. It is not possible to refuse the addition of the Star division and to keep the old subscription. Disney has not yet specified how this increase will affect Internet users who have opted for an annual subscription at 69.99 euros rather than monthly at 6.99 euros per month. The group is expected to clarify the situation in the coming weeks.
What series and movies on Star, the adult section of Disney +?
“We want to copy the success of our Disney + strategy by using this platform to deliver content we already own under an international brand, Star ” Disney CEO Bob Chapek already announced last August. With this in mind, Disney will be showing productions from ABC, FX, Freeform, Searchlight and 20th Century Studios.
Concretely, all the films of Fox, bought in 2017 by Disney, should be available. These include the Alien saga, Die Hard, Kingsman, Terminator or the Planet of the Apes. Moreover, films produced by Marvel Studios in partnership with Fox, and still absent from Disney +, will be added to the catalog. This is particularly the case of Logan, the spin off dedicated to Wolverine, or Deadpool. On the series side, the arrival of productions like Helstrom, Legion, an excellent Fox series that takes place in the world of the X-Men, Modern Family, Homeland and The Americans, has already been confirmed.
On the same subject: this gift card allows you to offer one year of Disney + subscription to your friends
Parental control to access certain Star films and series
On the other hand, the American giant has not specified whether the content produced by Hulu will eventually be integrated into the Star offer. Regardless, Star content is expected to vary from country to country depending on the prevailing media timeline. The addition of Star forces Disney + to implement a parental control system within its interface. To access certain content, deemed violent or not suitable for younger people, the streaming service will ask for a password.
In the wake of the conference dedicated to Star, Disney + announced the production of 10 Star Wars series, including 2 spin offs in the Mandalorian universe, and several new Marvel series, such as an animated series Groot (the ultra popular tree Guardians of the Galaxy), Iron Heart (a series that takes place in the Iron Man universe) or Armor Wars (a series dedicated to James Rhodes, alias War Machine).
Finally, Disney also revealed the number of subscribers won by Disney + in the space of two months: 13.1 million. Streaming service now counts 86.6 million customers worldwide, against 73 million in October. Bob Chapek claims that this “One-of-a-kind service with content that only Disney can create” at “Exceeded the wildest expectations” from Disney. With its Star offer dedicated to adults, will Disney + manage to dethrone Netflix, the current leader in VOD? We await your opinion in the comments.
