The long wait for Disney Plus UK is almost over. The Disney Plus release date in the UK and Ireland is March 24, a week earlier than the first-announced March 31 date, meaning we only have weeks to wait until the streaming service finally lands.
We also know the Disney Plus UK price, too: £5.99 per month or £59.99 per year. Subscribers to the UK-only Disney Life service will presumably be migrated over to Disney Plus, but Disney hasn’t elaborated on how that’ll work yet.
Disney Plus originally launched back in November, and the late launch in the UK should mean that the UK and other countries will get a bumper selection of Disney Plus originals when the service does arrive here, since there’s no reason to roll out shows like The Mandalorian on a weekly basis.
Below, we’ll talk you through everything we know about Disney Plus’s UK launch, price, compatible devices, shows, movies and the possibility of Sky Q integration.
Disney Plus UK release date: start streaming in March
Disney Plus has an updated release date in the UK: March 24, a week earlier than initially planned. It launches in Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria and Switzerland at the same time.
It’s been an absurdly long wait for Disney Plus to arrive in the UK, but it’s getting close now. No one’s been thrilled about getting the streaming service – including originals like The Mandalorian and Lady and the Trap – four months after the US, especially when we’ve had to fend off Baby Yoda memes for that entire time.
That said, although many Disney fans in Europe might’ve felt a bit left out by the staggered release date of Disney Plus, Disney fans in South America and Asia will be doubly disappointed as they still have yet to get a Disney Plus release date for the service for Brazil, Japan, Argentina and dozens of other Disney-loving countries.
It does feel like the delayed rollout of the service has made piracy Disney Plus’s worst enemy, even knowing a firm date is on the horizon for many European countries.
We saw the UK release date for Rick & Morty Season 4 brought forward after fan backlash over the delay, but doing so for a whole platform such as Disney Plus was likely too big a task. After all, a lot of Disney movies were still on Sky over the holidays, including most of the Star Wars films.
The delay is presumably more to do with available programming than anything else. Still, hopefully the delay means all episodes of The Mandalorian will arrive on day one, rather than rolling out weekly as they have in the US.
Disney Plus: UK price and subscription tiers explained
Disney has confirmed that Disney Plus will cost £59.99 for an annual subscription, or £5.99 per month. Those are the two available tiers, and you can cancel at any time. Unlike in the US, where it’s bundled in with ESPN and Hulu, in the UK Disney has so far only been announced as a standalone service.
Either tier gets you four concurrent streams, unlimited downloads with a maximum of 10 devices and the option to create seven profiles. Disney UK doesn’t specifically mention 4K resolutions, just ‘high-quality’ viewing. Since it’s available in the US and Australia, though, expect to see that for the same price tier. We’ll explain more about compatible apps below.
In the US, you can gift a year of Disney Plus either digitally or in the form of physical cards, but no such option has been announced for the UK yet.
Disney Plus may launch in the UK with Sky Q and Now TV
According to a report by The Telegraph, Disney Plus may be integrated into Sky Q and Now TV at launch. That means Sky Q users will be able to access content through the Sky interface, similarly to how it currently incorporates Netflix. We’ll update this page if the deal gets confirmed – but you can assume that The Telegraph scoop was made with some confidence.
Disney Plus UK: shows and movies
Star Wars series The Mandalorian is the clear highlight of Disney Plus originals. Disney UK hasn’t explained how it’ll roll episodes of each original show out, but we’re hoping it’s all at once. Expect the live-action Lady and the Tramp, High School Musical: The Series, Encore!, The World According to Jeff Goldblum, Togo, Diary of a Future President, Forky Asks a Question and The Imagineering Story at launch, too.
An important thing to note: UK Disney Plus content will differ to Disney Plus US, which already has movies like the live-action Lion King and Aladdin pictures from 2019 to stream.
As of mid-February, Disney started sending out marketing emails with samples of what to expect from Disney Plus UK at launch, which will include over 1000 films, series and originals, according to the email. Here’s everything we spotted on there that isn’t an existing Disney Plus original – most notable is X-Men: Days of Future Past, as none of the Fox X-Men movies are currently on the US version of the service.
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens
- X-Men: Days of Future Past
- Avengers: Infinity War
- Wall-E
- Free Solo
- The Little Mermaid
- The Flood (National Geographic)
Now, everything else from the archives is more of a question mark. Will Disney Plus UK get 30 seasons of The Simpsons, for example? We’re not sure either way. Sky has the exclusive rights to new episodes here, but it doesn’t offer any episodes for on-demand streaming. We’ve asked Disney about The Simpsons on Disney Plus UK specifically, and we’ll update you if there’s an answer.
Likewise, Sky has a pretty deep archive of Disney movies right now, including 2019’s Aladdin. It’s hard to tell how that might affect the content on Disney Plus, so for now we’ll have to wait and see.
In the future, Disney Plus is getting plenty of big exclusive shows. From the Marvel Cinematic Universe side of things, new shows include The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (August), WandaVision (November), Loki (2021), Hawkeye (2021) and animated show What If?. Further off, expect TV shows based on Moon Knight, Ms Marvel and She-Hulk. Unlike Marvel’s Netflix shows, too, these will canonically be part of the MCU, and feature actors crossing over between the movies and these TV series.
Lucasfilm has a second season of The Mandalorian coming in October 2020, then further off it’s making shows featuring Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi and Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor from Rogue One.
Disney Plus UK: apps and supported devices
Disney Plus should launch on pretty much any device you can name in the UK, including mobile devices, games consoles, streaming media devices and smart TVs. You can take Disney Plus shows on the go, too, downloading as many movies and shows as you can fit on your device, as long as you have an active subscription and connect to the internet every 30 days.
In the US, the app launched on Apple TV, Roku streaming devices, Android, iOS, PS4, Xbox One, Nvidia Shield, Hisense TVs, Google Chromecast and Amazon’s Fire range of streaming devices. One notable exception is the Nintendo Switch, which is still pretty poor at supporting streaming services.
Philips has confirmed its Android-based smart TVs will support Disney Plus.
- The Mandalorian season 2: what we know
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