Disney+ Sign Multi-Year Licensing Agreement With ZDF Studios

August 25, 2025 Roger Palmer

As Disney looks to expand its local offerings in many countries around the world to appeal to local audiences, Disney has announced a brand new multi-year licensing agreement with ZDF Studios to bring thousands of hours of German-produced TV series and films to Disney+ in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The deal will kick off on August 27th 2025, which will see a new curated collection of content called “ZDF Films and Series” added to Disney+. By the end of the year, this collection will grow to over 3,000 episodes and films.

With this new collection, Disney+ expands its existing range of high-quality local content with selected ZDF programmes – licensed by ZDF Studios. The introduction of more German-language formats builds on an already successful set of locally produced originals on Disney+, such as ” The Interpreter of Silence”, “Sam – A Saxon”, and the highly anticipated upcoming series “Call my Agent Berlin”.

Karl Holmes, General Manager, Disney+, EMEA, said in a statement regarding the deal:

“This deal marks an exciting new milestone built on our collaboration with leading European broadcasters. Disney+ has something for everyone, from global hits such as FX’s “The Bear” and blockbuster movies including Disney’s “Lilo & Stitch” to iconic franchises like Pixar and Star Wars. We’ve long admired the distinctive storytelling of ZDF’s films and series, and we’re delighted to bring even more local content to Disney+ customers in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, offering an even richer variety of stories to enjoy.”

The new package includes classic series and family formats like the popular crime series “SOKO” with 149 episodes, “A Crime in Munich” (“München Mord”), “Murder Up North” (“Nord Nord Mord”), “Marie Brand and …” (“Marie Brand und …”) and “Wilsberg” as well as other established content for a wide audience. The content will be discoverable on Disney+ via the search function and is embedded in a recognisable ZDF branding.

Disney has also announced that in the future, some new seasons of select ZDF series will also be part of the collection, only months after the linear TV broadcast, in addition to ZDF’s streaming platform. The programme selection will be updated regularly with titles such as “The Old Fox” (“Der Alte”), “The Criminalist” (“Der Kriminalist”), “What a Team!” (“Ein starkes Team”) and “The Crimson Rivers” (“Die purpurnen Flüsse”). For Disney+ customers, this means they will have direct access to a library of high-quality ZDF content.

ZDF Studios and Disney+ have been working together since 2021, licensing popular series such as “Mountain Medic” (“Der Bergdoktor”) and “Alpine Rescue” (“Die Bergretter”). The new agreement brings more local productions to Disney+ customers.

Roger’s Take: Disney has been making local licensing deals like this in many countries, such as recently in the UK with ITV and it offers a way of adding lots of local content, at a fraction of the cost of creating new original content. Disney+ is required to have a certain amount of content created in Europe to comply with a European quota, so this deal will drastically help increase the number of European titles available and also more importantly, appeal to more potential subscribers who want to watch German content.