Netflix has signed a new licensing agreement with Disney-ABC, adding tons of new content to their Watch Instantly streaming service.
For the first time ever, Disney has added ABC Family content to the streaming library.
Newer first-run content will be available 15 days after initial telecast.
Part of the new agreement are “prior season episodes of current ABC hit series “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Desperate Housewives” and, for the first time on Netflix, “Brothers & Sisters.”
Furthermore, Netflix will have all seasons of “Scrubs,” “Lost,” Ugly Betty” and “Reaper.”
From the Disney Channel comes more episodes of “Phineas and Ferb,” “Good Luck Charlie,” “The Suite Life on Deck” and “Wizards of Waverly Place.”
Finally, from ABC Family comes the catalogs of “Greek,” “Make It or Break It,” “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” and “Melissa & Joey.”
Result for: disney channel
Time Warner Cable has signed a new deal with Disney this week, giving their subscribers free access to the sports site ESPN3.
Because of the deal, 12.7 million Time Warner subscribers and 2.4 million Bright House subscribers will get free access to the site, and the ability to stream full games.
During the recent World Cup, ESPN says almost 8 million people tuned into the site at one point during the tournament.
The cable companies had long held out on ESPN3, citing excessive fees from Disney.
Additionally, the agreement will allow TW and BH to continue carrying the Disney Channel, ABC Family, Disney XD and ESPN 3D.
Result for: disney channel
James Gunn, a director of Horror movies, has criticized Microsoft for its poor handling of original content on the Xbox Live service. According to Gunn, he was promised absolute freedom to create content for the Horror Goes Comedy series, but soon became subject to conservative content cuts and rejections, leading him to brand Microsoft as “the most dreadful, non-talent friendly company”.
“I still love Xbox gaming, but I think their original content plans are DOA, precisely because of situations like the experience I and some of the other directors had on the Horror Goes Comedy series,” Gunn wrote on his blog. To emphasize his point, he cites Grand Theft Auto IV and episodes of South Park that are available for Xbox 360.
“Microsoft wouldn’t let us get close to the extremity of that material, so I don’t know how in the world they planned to create their own successful original content,” he explained. “People didn’t want to see our shows, which were barely a half-step removed from something you’d see on the Disney Channel. It’s a shame. I really think Xbox could have been its own Network, as well as a gaming console, DVR, and way to buy movies. I saw them as the future.”
