Sky and Disney have inked a multi-year distribution deal that will see the broadcaster offer Disney+ to Sky customers in the U.K. and Ireland at no extra cost as well as offering a streaming bundle including HBO Max, Netflix and Hayu.
The deal will also see Sky, a Comcast subsidiary, debut a dedicated Disney+ Cinema linear channel.
Launching March 2026, Disney+ (standard with ads tier) will be included in a variety of Sky TV subscriptions as well as further integration of the app with Sky’s operating system, saving Sky customers £5.99 per month. As part of the deal Disney+ shows will be promoted alongside Sky content on the “continue watching” rail and in recommendations.
Sky subscribers can activate Disney+ through products such as Sky Q, Sky Glass and Sky Stream while Disney+ customers who move their accounts and profiles over to watch via Sky can also make the cost saving.
As part of the offering, Sky will offer a bundle featuring Disney+, HBO Max, Netflix and Hayu into a single Sky TV subscription, starting at £24 a month for a two-year fixed-term contract.
“We’re really delighted with this deal, because customers tell us they face so much choice and complexity in this market so by signing this agreement, we’ve agreed to a much deeper level of product integration,” Sophia Ahmad, chief consumer officer at Sky, told Variety.
Karl Holmes, Disney+ general manager in EMEA, told Variety: “There are millions of customers at Sky who have currently chosen not to buy Disney+ direct, and they will now get Disney+ at no extra cost. And we would expect that those customers will use the Disney+ app and will enjoy our content.”
To date the U.K. has been the largest European market for Disney+ and is primarily direct to consumer, although the Mouse House does have deals with Virgin Media, Uber, Lloyds Bank and Tesco in the territory in relation to its streaming platform. Holmes clarified that none of those deals “are of the size or ambition of this arrangement with Sky.”
He added that the aim of the deal was to reach “millions of customers who prefer to buy TV as part of a larger subscription, and in that sense, it is complementary and additive to our existing growth.” Holmes predicted the agreement would take Disney+’s reach in the U.K. and Ireland up by around 40%, accounting for overlap, with the numbers based on BARB’s establishment survey.
Both parties declined to comment on the term of the agreement, although Holmes said it was “multiple years,” adding: “We wouldn’t do this for a short amount of time.”
The deal not extend to co-productions or the distribution of Disney+ content outside of the streaming platform and linear Disney+ Cinema channel.
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