Disney France: Trouble In The Magic Kingdom?
How 2025 might be their most challenging year to date
The Disney castle is under siege in France. Why? On Dec. 31st 2024, their long-standing partnership with MVPD Canal+ (the 5-year deal was valued at 250M€) expired (the parties couldn’t agree on terms) and it’s a big deal.
This deal (or lack thereof) speaks volume about the state of play for US majors as they try to keep all business lines afloat:
→ Is Linear a liability or an asset?
→ How can I succeed in local international markets across all verticals (TV, streaming, theatrical, Pay TV)? Can I maintain the same value as before now that I operate in D2C?
→ What is the optimal distribution strategy? Can I be successful in France without a top local Pay TV player?
We'll look into the French assets of Disney in France, where they fit in the French landscape and what the future holds for them.
Mentioned in this edition: Disney+, Canal+, Orange, Free, Netflix, Prime Video, Apple TV+.
Disney’s French Assets Today
The Park
France is one of the 4 international countries to have a Disney-themed park (along with Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo). Disneyland Paris is Europe’s most visited park with 10.4M visitors (16.1M if you add the Studios) in 2023. Now 2024 may look bleaker for the Paris location. Higher costs, less visitors due to the Olympics but possibly also the result of aggressive price increases (annual passes have increased by 25 to 40% with less perks) could explain the modest international growth mentioned during the FY 2024 earnings.
The Channels
Disney Channel launched in 1997 and was exclusively distributed by Canal+ since 2020. When the deal between the two expired in Dec. 2024, Disney Channel was meant to be closed on Jan. 1st 2025. The channel was saved when Disney struck deals with Orange and Free to distribute Disney Channel (and Disney Channel+1 for Free) as well as National Geographic in their Basic TV packages (meaning no additional subscription needed, it’s baked in the triple play packages). Disney Junior and NatGeo Wild closed though. How long until all TV channels simply fold in Disney+?
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The Streamer
Speaking of Disney+, it launched in France in March 2020. They went live on CTVs and as for Pay TV, it was exclusive to Canal+ which meant telecom operators had to sign reseller agreements with Canal to get Disney+, not their cup of tea as you can imagine.
In 5 years’ time, Disney+ has carved itself a nice spot in the leading SVOD services. As per H1 2024, here’s the market leaders’ subscriber breakdown: