Today Disney+ launched Star in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Europe. In Singapore, Disney+ launched together with Star today making it the first market to have a fully integrated launch. With the integration, Star has its own dedicated brand page on Disney+. There, viewers can find a collection of movies, television, documentaries, and more. There is also Star-branded exclusive originals and local productions found there that are being created for the service.
“Disney+ has touched the lives of nearly a hundred million people around the globe by providing a home for exceptional storytelling from the beloved brands of Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic, and today’s launch of the Star-branded international general entertainment offering marks an exciting expansion for the service,” said Rebecca Campbell, Chairman, International Operations and Direct-to-Consumer, The Walt Disney Company. “With the addition of Star, we’re building even more value for consumers by adding an incredible array of high-quality movies and series for families, older teens, and adults, fueled by the acquisition of 21st Century Fox and our creative studios.”
Disney+ launched in November 2019. Since then, it has garnered nearly 100 million subscribers. Star serves as the streaming home for Disney General Entertainment Content, including Disney Television Studios (ABC Signature and 20th Television), FX Productions, 20th Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures, and more. This includes programs of all makes and styles. Some favorites are Grey’s Anatomy, 24, The X-Files, Lost and Family Guy. FX’s innovative comedy and Emmy® and Golden Globe® Award winner Atlanta by Donald Glover, ABC’s Emmy® Award and Golden Globe®-nominated comedy series black-ish starring Anthony Anderson, Tracee Ellis Ross and Yara Shahidi, Shonda Rhimes’s critically-acclaimed legal drama Scandal and feminist comedy Dollface created by Jordan Weiss are now available for subscribers to watch. Plus, award-winning movies like The Favourite and The Grand Budapest Hotel, along with classics such as Pretty Woman, Die Hard 2, The Devil Wears Prada, and Moulin Rouge, to name a few that are now on Star with Disney+.
There are also exclusive Star originals. These are produced by Disney Television Studios in International markets. By the end of the first year, there will be over 35 first-run series set to premiere on the platform. Some of these titles that are now streaming include crime thriller Big Sky from David E. Kelley (Big Little Lies, The Undoing); Love, Simons pin-off series Love, Victor written by the film’s original writers Isaac Aptaker (This Is Us) and Elizabeth Berger (This Is Us) and adult animated sitcom Solar Opposites, co-created by Justin Roiland (Rick & Morty) and Mike McMahan (ex-writer’s assistant on Rick & Morty). Helstrom, a drama series produced by Paul Zbyszewski with Karim Zreik and Jeph Loeb will also be available with the launch. Titles will vary by location.
There will also be titles that come from specific regions. These locally produced Originals will be sourced, developed, and produced in a specific region when this is possible.
Disney+ is a family brand and not everything that will appear on Star will be family friendly. With that in mind, there is now a robust set of parental controls in place. With these controls, certain profiles can be locked out of certain content based on the content’s ratings. There will also be the ability to add a PIN to access profiles with access to to more adult content.
The global rollout of Disney+ with Star will continue throughout the year with new markets opening in Eastern Europe, Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea, and in Latin America. The general entertainment offering will launch as a separate streaming service called Star+.
