Reminder: Disney To Close Their Remaining Linear Channels Across Asia In The Coming Months, More Markets Likely To Follow

Disney is to close its six remaining linear TV

channels in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Taiwan

and Korea as the conglomerate puts a greater

emphasis on direct-to-consumer streaming.

The channels concerned are National Geographic,

National Geographic Wild, Star Chinese Movies,

Star Chinese Channel, Star Movies and Star World.

Linear services will end from September in

Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Korea, and by

December in Taiwan.

The group expects to retain a streamlined

television portfolio with channels in Japan, China,

Australia and New Zealand for the time being.

Consumers can continue to access content from

these channels on the conglomerate’s Disney+

and Disney+ Hotstar streaming platforms, which

are now fully rolled out within the Asia-Pacific

region, except China. The twin platforms carry

movies and shows from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star

Wars, National Geographic and Star, Disney’s

general entertainment brand.

While the moves may help reduce costs and push

consumption onto its D2C businesses, sources

close to the group say that Disney still expects to

grow its media and entertainment businesses –

D2C, theatrical, consumer products and theme

parks – in the region.

The moves were foreshadowed by similar moves

in 2020 and 2021 . Disney closed its sports

channels in Taiwan in 2020. In September 2021, it

closed Fox, Fox Crime, Fox Life, FX, and Channel

V; movie channels Fox Action Movies, Fox Family

Movies, Fox Movies and Star Movies China; sports

channels Fox Sports, Fox Sports 2, Fox Sports 3,

Star Sports 1, Star Sports 2; kids channel Disney

Channel and Disney Junior; factual services Nat

Geo People and SCM Legend. Many of those

channels had been brought into the Disney group

by the 2018 acquisition of 21st Century Fox.

In the five largest markets of Southeast Asia

proper (Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore

and the Philippines) SVOD subscriptions reached

49 million at the end of the first quarter, according

to data from research house Media Partners Asia.

It estimated that, in terms of subscription

numbers, the leading platforms in the first quarter

were Disney+ and Disney+ Hotstar with 9.4

million, Viu with 8.5 million, Netflix with 8.0

million and Prime Video at 1.3 million. (A

categorization by revenue might produce a

different ranking.)

Other recent reports have pointed to U.S.-

produced content accounting for only 20% of

video viewing time in the region, eclipsed by

Korea content at 30%. However, since the launch

of the streaming platform, Disney has become a

significant investor in locally-made Asian content.

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