Thunderbolt in the French audiovisual landscape. Disney+ has formalized its break with Canal+. The VOD service and its films will soon no longer be available free of charge to Canal+ subscribers.
We expected it, and it's now official. From January 1, 2025, the Disney+ streaming platform will definitively leave the encrypted channel offers, taking with it privileged access to new Disney films.
This decision, symbolically announced on the 40th anniversary of Canal+, marks the end of a collaboration initiated in 2020. « Canal+ customers will no longer be able to watch our new films, nor access Disney+ or our television channels via their subscription. », Specified Disney in its official press release.
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Canal+ and Disney+ separate
After affecting Free subscribers, the change will have major implications for Canal subscribers. While Canal+ has until now allowed the broadcast of Disney films six months after their theatrical releaseyou will now have to wait 17 months to find them, and only on Disney+, in accordance with the French media chronology.
Faced with this separation, Canal+ adopts a calm posture. Gérald-Brice Viret, Managing Director of Antennas and Programs of the group, minimized the impact by mentioning “ fairly marginal consumption » Disney content by subscribers. For his part, Christophe Pinard-Legry, DG in charge of the budget, underlined the impossibility of finding a financially acceptable agreement for subscribers.
This break is part of a broader Disney strategy, which now favors a direct relationship with its consumers in an increasingly competitive streaming market. The last Disney film available on Canal+ will be “ Vice-Versa 2 » in December 2024.
While Canal+ subscribers who regularly used Disney+ are already expressing their anger on social networks, it now remains to be seen what this will mean for the different subscription plans. Now that one of the services is no longer available, Could Canal lower its prices? It is more likely that the recent arrival of Paramount+ has already compensated for this departure.
