During the Walt Disney Company’s Investor Call, Bob Chepek announced that they will be launching a new international general streaming service called “Star”.

The new streaming service will launch in 2021 and will consist of the following brands:

  • ABC
  • FX
  • Freeform
  • Searchlight
  • 20th Century Studios

This will be mirroring the Disney+ strategy and using all of their own library content to launch a brand new platform, with similar technology.

During the financial call, it was said that Hulu is only known within the US, the Hulu branding doesn’t mean as much as “Star”. And with Hulu featuring lots of licensed content, Star will just offer Disney owned content.  Also, with NBC Universal owning 33% of Hulu, by launching the new service as Star, it wouldn’t increase the value of Hulu, resulting in Disney having to pay more to Comcast when it eventually buys out their existing contract.

Disney Chairman Bob Chapek said:

And to this end, I am also pleased to announce that we plan to launch an international, direct-to-consumer, general entertainment offering under the Star brand in calendar year 2021. Mirroring the strategy we successfully pursued with Disney+, the offering will be rooted in content we own from the prolific and critically acclaimed production engines and libraries of ABC Studios, Fox Television, FX, Freeform, 20th Century Studios, and Searchlight.

In many markets, the offering will be fully integrated into our established Disney+ platform from both a marketing and a technology perspective. And it will be distributed under the Star brand, which has been successfully utilized by the company for other general entertainment platform launches, particularly with Disney+ Hotstar in India. The fact that Disney+ has grown as rapidly as it has, both domestically and globally, clearly demonstrates the value of our content. And through the addition of our Star-branded general entertainment offering, we are further extending the value of that content internationally.

More details on Star will revealed at an upcoming Investors Day event.

What do you think of Disney launching Star?

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Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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7 Comments

  1. Charlie August 4, 2020

    this better have everything that isn't on Disney+

    1. Nick Moreau August 4, 2020

      I'm reading this solely as a relaunch of Hulu, a location for the content targeted at adults. But I doubt that they'd have everything at once, unless that content is already on Hulu.

      1. Me August 5, 2020

        Don't be fooled by the Hulu brand though as very little content on there is related to Disney's other brands (i.e. Fox etc.). It's still very much made up of third-party content and the core part of the service is live-streaming pay-TV channels. The part of this article re the value and reasoning for using the Star branding over Hulu is pure conjecture on the part of whoever wrote the piece - it's based on no actual facts.

  2. Jacob Pfundstein August 4, 2020

    I'm really excited if we can directly access all of that stuff directly through Disney+ (obviously by paying a bit more) but I don't want it to be a real extern new streaming service like HULU is.

    1. The Brain August 5, 2020

      That is not going to happen because Disney brand is only related to familiar-friendly content.

  3. Ernesto Chacon August 4, 2020

    Hmmm, interesting new service. But one question that is on my mind is it only for international markets or is it worldwide?

  4. JohnBirtch August 6, 2020

    Do you know how much is it going to cost of does it come with the subscription that we already have? Thanks!