Disney Taps Sony to Run DVD Business as Disc Watching Wanes

Walt Disney Co. reached an agreement for Sony Group Corp. to take over the bulk of its DVD and Blu-ray sales in the US and Canada, according to people with knowledge of the transaction, transitioning out a business that’s fallen dramatically in recent years.

Author of the article:

Bloomberg News

Thomas Buckley

Published Feb 20, 2024 • 1 minute read

The Disney store in the Times Square neighborhood of New York, US, on Monday, Oct. 30, 2023. Walt Disney Co. is scheduled to release earnings figures on November 8. Photographer: Angus Mordant/Bloomberg Photo by Angus Mordant /Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) — Walt Disney Co. reached an agreement for Sony Group Corp. to take over the bulk of its DVD and Blu-ray sales in the US and Canada, according to people with knowledge of the transaction, transitioning out a business that’s fallen dramatically in recent years.

Burbank, California-based Disney is shifting to a licensed model, under which Sony will market and distribute the discs to retailers, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is private.

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The DVD business is shrinking as more people view movies and TV shows online — making it tougher for each studio to run its own operation profitably. Revenue from physical home entertainment fell 25% to $1.56 billion last year, according to figures from the Digital Entertainment Group. Digital purchases, including streaming, rose 19.3% to $41.4 billion.

Sony signed a similar agreement with Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. in 2021. Disney stopped selling discs in some markets last year, including Australia and New Zealand. Netflix Inc. stopped distributing DVDs to customers last year.

Sales of video cassettes and later DVDs was once a large and lucrative business for Disney. The company released old animated films periodically from its “vault,” and fans built up collections. Now nearly the company’s entire catalog is available on its Disney+ streaming service.

The deal will involve new Disney releases and older titles. The news was reported earlier Tuesday by the website Digital Bits. Disney will retain control of the home entertainment business that includes licensing its films and TV series to streaming platforms.

(Updates with industry data in third paragraph.)

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