Disney to license North American DVD and Blu-ray distribution to Sony
Major physical media news was announced this week. Disney and Sony have entered in a deal in which Sony will handle all DVD and Blu-ray production, marketing, and distribution for Disney in the United States and Canada. Disney’s also shutting down its Disney Movie Club service, which gives subscribers access to obscure Disney films and TV shows that wouldn’t get a DVD or Blu-ray release otherwise. (The Disney Movie Club released the 2000s animated series “The Weekenders” on two DVD volume sets, for instance.)
A big shift for Disney and home video
As I’ve written earlier this month, DVD and Blu-ray sales have dropped dramatically in the past few years, with everything shifting to streaming and digital video. Disney itself is clearly putting a heavier emphasis on Disney+ over its traditional media distribution methods. The Disney Channel’s shut down in most of Asia, plus Australia, the United Kingdom, Scandinavia, and elsewhere. Disney’s also stopped distributing physical media in Australia, New Zealand, and Latin America.
Still, the Disney/Sony news is a big deal. For starters, it’s happening in Disney’s home territory of North America, not elsewhere. It’s also a big shift in mindset for Disney. Going by the Wikipedia page for Disney’s home video division, Disney has handled distribution of its own material on home video near exclusively since the earliest VHS/Beta videotape days, save a few exceptions (such as Warner Home Video handling DVD distribution of a few titles in Europe and Australia between 1998 and 2000). Disney’s home video division was large enough at one point it handled distribution of other studios’ content, such as a series of “Rocky and Bullwinkle” VHS tapes in the 80s and 90s. And, of course, who can forget the infamous “Disney Vault?” (Much as we try.) The YouTube channel Yesterworld Entertainment has a video summarizing the history of Disney and home video (up to 2020).
Disney’s rivals and DVDs
The House of Mouse does have plenty of company in licensing out its physical media to a third party. Other studios’ handling of DVDs have often been either through third parties or in conjunction with rival studios. Looking at the other major studios in North America, since 2020 Warner Bros. and Universal have merged domestic physical media operations into a joint company, Studio Distribution Services (SDS). The two studios also operate a joint website for selling their DVDs/Blu-rays, Gruv. Warner also still has the Warner Archive DVD/Blu-ray service for obscure material. Surprisingly, Warner Archive hasn’t been gutted by David Zaslav in WB Discovery’s rounds of penny-pinching.
Paramount, meanwhile, seems to handle DVD distribution of its library mostly on its own. Lionsgate’s own DVD releases seem to be a mix of third-party content and its own productions, as far as I can tell. There’s also various niche or smaller DVD distributors (aka “boutique labels”), such as Shout Studios (formerly Shout Factory) and the Criterion Collection.