Walt Disney Co. said it signed a deal with Sony Corp.’s PlayStation Vue streaming video service to carry all of the media powerhouse’s channels, including ESPN and ABC, and smaller channels like Fusion and Longhorn Network.
The deal includes an “extensive” on-demand library from Disney and will, for the first time, offer the company’s channels over the Internet on a “multi-stream” basis—meaning that more than one person in a household can stream the programming at once. Disney’s first Web TV distribution deal, struck with Dish Network Corp.’s Sling TV, only allows for one stream at a time.
The companies did not specify a launch date.
The two sides came to terms as Disney was able to negotiate more favorable packaging of its content to reach a compromise with Sony on price, people familiar with the Disney’s thinking said. ESPN, ESPN 2, Disney Channel, ABC and ABC Family will appear in Sony’s basic cable package, and other channels like Disney XD and ESPN U will appear in the package that is the second-highest penetrated tier of channels among Sony customers.
Disney also was able to negotiate that the channels in the second tier would have to reach a certain percentage of Sony’s subscriber base, the person said. In addition, Disney negotiated a minimum guarantee of money, regardless of how many subscribers Sony adds, the people said.
Dwayne Benefield, a Sony vice president and head of PlayStation Vue, said in a statement, “This deal demonstrates our continued commitment to offer the best content on TV to PlayStation Vue users.”
Disney also found the Sony Vue interface appealing, especially since its apps like WatchESPN garner high engagement on gaming consoles, one of the people said.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/disney-joins-sonys-vue-streaming-service-1446740910
