Disney and Channel 4 have struck a landmark UK content deal that will also see the Channel 4 linear network become available on Disney+, a UK first.
In one of the biggest deals of its kind in UK TV history, shows like Channel 4 stalwart Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins and upcoming Bella Ramsey-starrer Maya will drop on Disney+ at the start of next year in the UK and Ireland.
From there, Disney+ EMEA general manager Karl Holmes told Deadline there will be a “regular tempo” of new Channel 4 shows entering the Mouse House, although he wouldn’t put an exact figure on this.
From the start of next year, Disney+ UK and Ireland subs will be able to watch these shows day-and-date plus hundreds of hours of on-demand content like Russell T. Davies’ Tip Toe and Nicola Coughlan’s Big Mood. And in a UK first, Channel 4’s linear channel will also become available in its entirety on Disney+.
Speaking alongside Holmes, Channel 4 CEO Priya Dogra claimed the Gogglebox network and Disney+ don’t have much overlap in terms of audience and the deal can be complementary. Channel 4 already licenses Disney content like Abbott Elementary, The X Files and Scandal for its VoD player.
“From our perspective, people develop viewing habits in different places,” said Dogra. “There are a number of services they may use to discover content, and we need to make sure Channel 4 is available on those platforms.”
Holmes said Disney+ viewing skews younger than public service broadcasters like Channel 4, adding that around 40% of Disney+ viewing over the past year has come from 16-34 year olds. “There is a genuinely complementary relationship here,” added Holmes. “We’re not competing with free-to-air partners; we’re helping them reach a broader audience.”
The news comes more than a year after Disney+ kicked off a strategy of partnering with local European networks by striking a content-swapping deal with ITV that has seen shows like The Bear and The Kardashians head to ITVX, while Love Island and Mr Bates vs the Post Office went in the opposite direction. This preceded Disney deals with the likes of Germany’s ZDF and Spain’s Atresmedia. Netflix has simultaneously struck a high-profile pact with France’s TF1 that was recently talked up by Ted Sarandos.
Holmes said the Disney-Channel 4 pact is broader in scope than Disney-ITV and his team learned from the latter when executing the former. “One clear lesson is that a focus on shows that are current, big, bold and buzzy – and available day-and-date – works particularly well with our audience,” he added. “That’s what we’ve prioritised in this collaboration. We’d like to build on it further in the future.”
For Dogra, who has been in post less than a year, the deal is the latest landmark agreement she has helped mastermind following the once-in-a-generation ads deal inked with Skydance UK network 5. She has talked up collaboration opportunites including putting Channel 4 shows on BBC iPlayer, while downplaying the idea of a BBC-Channel 4 merger.
While the Paramount deal “gives us scale from an advertising perspective,” today’s agreement “allows us to maximise our impact by reaching as many people as possible across the UK and Ireland, including people who may not currently be using Channel 4 services,” Dogra added.
“The premise is that we need to lean into the wider ecosystem,” said the CEO, a former Sky and Warner Bros. Discovery executive. “We’re not going to build scale in every area ourselves, so we need to work with like-minded organizations.”
More details on the Disney-Channel 4 deal will be incoming in due course.