Disney and U.K. network ITV have signed a pact billed as a “first-of-its-kind initiative” that will see them share a curated selection of content across their streaming services.
Disney+ will carry a “promotional selection” of titles from ITV’s ITVX under the banner “Taste of ITVX” that will include shows such as the multi-award-winning “Mr. Bates vs The Post Office,” espionage thriller ” Spy Amongst Friends” and selected seasons of the reality hit “Love Island.”
Meanwhile, ITVX will have a “Taste of Disney+” selection of shows and movies including the first seasons of FX’s “The Bear”, Lucasfilm’s “Andor” and “Only Murders in the Building,” plus selected series of reality titles such as “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” and “The Kardashians.”
Around 70-100 hours of content from each streamer’s library will be shared.
The service will launch on both platforms on July 16 and will be available free of charge to both sets of customers, with the content on each selection of titles refreshed every couple of months.
Speaking to Variety, Disney+ EMEA general manager Karl Holmes said that the titles chosen by the studio would be “content that typically skewed towards adults,” giving Disney+ access to ITV’s more-typically older 45+ audience. By showing earlier series of franchises, the hope is to draw these customers — which he said has been “less receptive to Disney+” — over to the streamer and drive subscriptions, an opportunity he described as “gold dust.”
“It’s really powerful for us and will help drive consideration in a demo which hasn’t considered as much under our sign ups,” he explained. “And at the same time, we get some of the U.K.’s biggest shows to put in front of our younger audience. And it does the same for ITV in reverse. It all works is because of the complementarity of the audiences.”
The deal comes just weeks after Netflix announced a landmark agreement giving its subscribers in France access to TF1 channels via the streamer. The move was widely seen as part of efforts by Netflix to strengthen its power over traditional broadcasters and potentially a litmus test for similar international arrangements going forward.
Holmes said that conversations with ITV were already “well underway” when the Netflix pact with TF1 was announced, but acknowledged the emergence of what would appear to be a new race by streamers to form such relationships with international broadcasters and that deals he admitted “would have been considered inconceivable” a year ago will become commonplace.
“We are clearly not the only global streaming company who have noticed that free-to-air broadcasters aggregate the largest audiences and have the largest shows. So of course, I would expect our competitors to be discussing things with other free-to-air businesses,” he said. Disney is now in “active discussions in several markets” across Europe for similar deals to the partnership with ITV, he said.
“I think potentially, the thing which we will aim to do and the principle we will aim to adopt, is one of mutual sustainability and support. We have a long, long history of supporting the free-to-air broadcasters, and we want that to continue. We believe in the local ecosystem in all of the big markets in which we operate.”
While not part of the content deal with ITV, Holmes said he expected the new partnership to see the relationship between the two companies, which has already seen Disney+ commission shows such as “Rivals” from ITV Studios, evolve further.
“We are proud of this innovative collaboration with ITV, which will allow us to bring Disney+ customers some of the U.K.’s favorite and buzzworthy shows and encourage ITVX viewers to discover some of Disney+’s award-winning series and blockbuster films,” added Joe Earley, president, direct-to-consumer, Disney Entertainment.
Added ITV’s managing director of media and entertainment Kevin Lygo: “Disney are fantastic partners with a brilliant breadth of content. This mutually beneficial alliance allows us to show our complementary audiences a specially selected collection of titles, regularly updating, that gives a flavour of the range in our respective offerings. For us, this deal means even more great content for viewers on ITVX, and even more opportunity for viewers to find and enjoy our distinctive titles and services.”distinctive titles and services.”