Disney CEO Says Streaming Service Means It Also Will Pull LucasFilms, Marvel Titles From Netflix

let the video streamer distribute after 2019 (see 1708090029), “will have the entire output of the studio” for the direct-to-consumer service, Iger said. Netflix emailed us Friday that "as with Disney films, US Netflix members will have access to Marvel and Star Wars films on the service through the end of 2019 and 2020 in many cases. This includes all new films shown theatrically through the end of 2018. We continue to do business with" Disney "on many fronts, including our ongoing relationship with Marvel TV." The two studios will produce four-five original films exclusively for the new service, “primarily live action,” plus four-five original TV series and three-four TV movies, all “Disney-branded,” Iger said. The Disney direct-to-consumer service will “launch big,” Iger said. It will launch internationally, and it’s “possible that some markets will launch the service earlier than we'll launch in the United States because of windowing opportunities that we have on the motion picture side that we don't have here,” he said. The ESPN-branded livestreaming app will launch in the spring with 10,000 “live sporting events” in the first year “that are not currently on ESPN's linear channels,” including Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, Major League Soccer and “a lot of college sports that we own the rights to,” the CEO said. “Over time,” Iger envisions the ESPN livestreaming app as becoming a “sports marketplace platform” that will emulate iTunes for its consumer-friendly utility: “You'll be able to pick and choose, over time, what it is you want. It won't necessarily be a one-size-fits-all.”