Over a year left on Sky-Disney deal

Sky will continue broadcasting The Simpsons and Disney movies for the next year...

Putting an end to immediate speculation over how Disney+ will affect Sky, which has a long-standing deal with Disney, Zai Bennett, MD of Content at Sky told BBC Radio 5 Live's Must Watch podcast that "for the next year or so, [Sky's] customers will not notice any difference".

Responding to a question about what would happen to The Simpsons, he said "Simpsons are on Sky".

The long running US cartoon series has been with Sky since its launch over thirty years ago and is one of the many deals Sky had with 21st Century Fox, when both companies were part of the Murdoch media empire. Although Disney has been making sure it has full control over much of its core programme library ahead of the launch of Disney+, the deals that predate Disney's takeover of 21st Century Fox in 2019 still have time left before they expire.

There had already been speculation that the Sky deal with Disney still had until mid 2021 to run and that until then, some legacy Disney and ex-21st Century Fox shows and channels would continue on Sky.

However, while existing shows are still bound by legacy deals, Disney is ensuring new shows launch on Disney+ by default.


[Image: Parody theme park in The Simpsons, long before Disney took over the rights to the long-running animation]

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