Star branded general entertainment streamer in the works at Disney

Disney owned Star brand will be used for the general entertainment streamer which will be hosting content from FX, Freeform, 20th Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures, and Disney Television Studios. The streamer is scheduled to launch internationally in 2021. Disney will reveal more details regarding this offering in its Investor Meeting in the following months.

The announcement came as a part of Disney’s quarterly earnings call yesterday. Bob Chapek, CEO of Disney noted Star brand awareness internationally as one of the reasons they are going with it. He also said that Star branded offering will be a fully integrated part of Disney+ in some markets and will be marketed and distributed under the Star branding.

Bob Chapek when asked about Hulu brand and why it was not used said it has no brand awareness outside of the U.S.A. and relies on content from third-party distributors which they won’t be having rights to stream overseas. Hulu currently has 35.5 million subscribers.

In other news, Disney+ Hotstar is scheduled to roll out in Indonesia on September 5^th. Disney+ is slated for a rollout in the Nordics in September and Latin America in November marking its availability in nine of the top ten economies.