In what might be considered a throwback to an era when companies made money off products, not layoffs, The Walt Disney Company has agreed to license some of its content library to Netflix in exchange for legal tender, reports Variety. It’s a bold, unique game plan that has fallen out of favor in recent years as Disney and Netflix have passed the burden of expensive content onto consumers through ever-inflating subscription fees and onto employees via routine layoffs and benefit cutbacks.
The trade outlet says this is part of Disney’s strategy to not only make money off previously produced projects its customer base has consumed already, but also get them hooked on that content for upcoming seasons. The agreement includes some of Disney+’s most popular series, including the first two seasons of Percy Jackson And The Olympians, which begins streaming on Netflix a month and a half before the show’s third season premiere on Disney+. The same is true for 20th Century Television titles Will Trent, Shifting Gears, and the super hit Tracker, all timed to the shows’ upcoming season premieres on, get this, network television.
Disney will even attempt to hook new generations of non-Disney+ subscribers on the Ice Age franchise it acquired in its 2019 purchase of 20th Century Fox. On October 4, Netflix will have access to the five Ice Age movies in the lead-up to the sixth, Ice Age: Boiling Point, which opens on February 5, 2027. Like the global freeze, Ice Age‘s time on the streamer is limited to a three-month promotional run. Additionally, Disney will allow Netflix to stream some of its more underseen animated movies, including Pixar’s Soul and Elio and 2021’s Raya And The Last Dragon. It remains to be seen if the strategy of selling old products to a major corporation will slow the steady tide of layoffs and price increases at Disney, but at least Netflix subscribers can finally meet this Scrat character everyone’s talking about.
Keep scrolling for more great stories.