Physical media collectors might worry that this means Disney is going to start abandoning the Blu-ray and DVD formats in the future. After all, the industry is in decline and the profits are shrinking every year. There were even rumors that the company was going to ditch 4K Ultra HD releases altogether back in 2020. Fear not though: Disney is going to stay in the physical media business, they’re just going to be handing off the responsibilities to someone else. Specifically, Sony.
As first reported by The Digital Bits, Sony Pictures Entertainment has inked a deal with Disney to take over the company’s physical media business. Going forward, Sony will manufacture, distribute, and market Disney’s DVD and Blu-ray releases, as well as other physical media. That means future Disney releases will still be available through physical and digital retailers, it’s just that the studio is letting another company handle that side of the business from now on. How are things going to change once this is put in place? That remains to be seen, but at the very least, it’s better than Disney abandoning the business entirely.
We’ve seen in recent years that streaming is wildly unreliable. Not only are there more streaming services now than ever before, but many of them are regularly raising prices – Disney+ and Hulu included. Plus, titles move from service to service frequently, so it can be hard to track down certain movies or TV shows when you want to watch them (and that’s if they’re available at all, as these studios are also removing titles from libraries with more regularity). It’s been messy, but the cold hard fact of the matter is that streaming is the future and there is no fighting that future. That’s where Disney is choosing to invest its resources and put its focus. Sony, on the other hand, is happy to take the money Disney would otherwise be leaving on the table.