Sky MD: “Disney+ won’t affect our content… yet”
February 25, 2020
Following the news that The Simpsons will not be available on the Disney+ streaming service when it launches in the UK, Sky MD Zai Bennett has assured fans that the show will continue to be available on Sky.
Bennett was being interviewed on Radio 5 Live, where he said the long-running animated series will only be available to view on Sky in the UK for the forseeable future. “Simpsons is on Sky – absolutely,” Bennett told the radio station.
Discussing how the launch of Disney’s new streaming service will affect Sky, Bennett added: “For the immediate term – for the next year or so – our customers will not notice any difference at all to what they have got.”
The comment suggests that everything under the Disney umbrella – including Marvel Cinematic Universe, Pixar releases as well as The Simpsons, will remain on Sky until some time in 2021.
When quizzed on Sky’s place in a market increasingly swamped by popular streaming services, Bennett said: “It’s a very different proposition. Sky’s for people that want that full-fat bundle [and] hundreds and hundreds of channels. Sky Atlantic’s got everything from HBO, everything from ShowTime, and loads of original drama. And that’s just one of our channels. Plus we’ve got Cinema, Sports, News, so it’s a very different proposition to an Apple or Disney+ or Netflix, which are mostly just in the drama/ents world.”
Bennett added that Now TV was more of a rival to the aforementioned services: “Sky TV is for people who are happy to have a longer contract, pay a bit more, have the technology in the home, the box, the 4K, the remote control that you can voice-activate. And Now TV’s for people that want a bit more convenience, you don’t want a contract, maybe you can’t have a dish. They’re for very different people.”