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Star+

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Star+ (Star Plus; stylized as ST★R+) was a short-lived subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service available in almost all Ibero-American states. The service was owned by The Walt Disney Company through the Disney Entertainment division and business segment.[1]

The service featured television and film content from the libraries of Disney subsidiaries, including Star Originals, 20th Television, 20th Television Animation, Searchlight Television, 20th Century Studios, 20th Century Animation (films only), ABC Signature, Freeform, FX Networks, Hollywood Pictures, Hotstar, Hulu, National Geographic, Searchlight Pictures, Touchstone Pictures and many more, as well as a large amount of third party content from Sony Pictures, NBCUniversal and Paramount Global and live sports from ESPN.[2]

Star+ content was merged into Disney+ on June 26, 2024[3] and the separate streaming platform was discontinued on July 24 of the same year.[4]

History

Pre-launch

The "Star" brand originated as a Hong Kong-based satellite broadcaster, which operated under that name as an acronym of "Satellite Television Asian Region." It was founded by Hutchison Whampoa in 1990, and was acquired by News Corporation in 1993.[5] After 2009, the Star brand was mainly restricted to the now separately owned Star China Media, as well as Star India, which operates primarily in India but also distributes Indian vernacular TV programming worldwide and the remaining Asia Pacific rebranded from Star to then Fox International Channels' regional unit.[6] Star India (as well as all of the now Fox Networks Group's Asia Pacific operationsTemplate:Efn) was then acquired by Walt Disney as part of its acquisition of 21st Century Fox on March 20, 2019.

During an earnings call on August 5, 2020, Disney CEO Bob Chapek announced that Disney planned to launch a new international, general entertainment service under the "Star" brand name in 2021. The plan superseded a previously announced international expansion of the majority-controlled American streaming service, Hulu, which has only expanded outside the United States to Japan.[7] Chapek argued that the Hulu brand is not well known outside of the US, while Star being a much more recognizable brand outside of the United States.[8]

Dispute with Lionsgate

In April 2021, Disney faced a trademark dispute in Brazil, Argentina and Mexico with Lionsgate's Starz Entertainment over the use of the Star brand in Ibero-America.[9] The Wrap reported that Disney had five days to respond to the Brazil lawsuit.[10] As a result, on May 13, 2021, it would be announced that the launch of Star+ in Ibero-America would be delayed to August 31.[11][12]

While Disney eventually won the dispute, in July, they would lose an appeal in court in Brazil to the name dispute with Lionsgate.[13] In August 2021, Disney and Starz reached a settlement over the brand name issue allowing Star+ to launch in Ibero-America on August 31 as scheduled. The lawsuit was dropped after the deal was reached.[14][15]

In June 2022, Disney and Lionsgate announced a streaming bundle offer in select Ibero-American countries, consisting of Disney+, Star+ and Lionsgate's Starzplay service.[16]

On September 28, 2022, Lionsgate announced that its Starzplay service would rename to Lionsgate+ worldwide on the next day, including Ibero-America but excluding United States and Canada (where it is still known as Starz in those regions), as well as Cuba which completely ended the name conflict with Disney's Star+ service.[17][18][19]

Merge with Disney+

On December 12, 2023, The Walt Disney Company Latin America has planned to closing down Star+ platform while also to launch both the Star and ESPN hub onto Disney+ from June 26, 2024.[20] The standalone Star+ app, originally planned to discontinued on June 30, 2024, was later got pushed to July 24 of that same year.[4] The announcement was left unnoticed for current Star+ subscribers until they drop the short clip about it.[21]

Content

Star+ served the same purpose as the Star content hub that was integrated into the Disney+ service in several other countries on February 23, 2021.[22][23][24] The services hosted a variety of content from Disney's studios, primarily general entertainment content carried on Disney+, as well as live sports from ESPN.

Original programming

Template:Further

In addition to acquired content, Star+ produced original, local content in almost all Ibero-American states to be exclusively released on the platform.[25]

Sports rights

American football

Association football

Asia

Template:Flagdeco Europe

Template:Flagdeco Belgium

Template:Flagdeco England

Template:Flagdeco France

Template:Flagdeco Germany

Template:Flagdeco Italy

Template:Flagdeco Netherlands

Template:Flagdeco Portugal

Template:Flagdeco Scotland

Template:Flagdeco Spain

Template:Flagdeco Turkey

South America

Template:Flagdeco Argentina

Template:Flagdeco Brazil

Template:Flagdeco Ecuador

Template:Flagdeco Peru

Template:Flagdeco Uruguay

North America

Template:Flagdeco Mexico

Template:Flagdeco United States

Australian rules football

Motorsports

Baseball

Template:Flagdeco United States

Template:Flagdeco Mexico

Basketball

Template:Flagdeco United States

Template:Flagdeco Africa

Template:Flagdeco Europe

Boxing

Combat sport

Cycling

Field Hockey

Golf

Hockey

Polo

Rugby

Table Tennis

Tennis

Volleyball

Availability

Star+ was available for streaming via web browsers on PC and Mac, as well as apps on iOS and Apple TV, Android and Android TV, Fire TV and Fire HD, Chromecast, Roku, WebOS and Tizen OS devices among another digital media player and gaming consoles, such as PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, as well as PC running Windows 10 and Windows 11.[27][28]

Launch rollout timeline
Region Country/Territory Launch date
North America Costa Rica Template:Dts[29][30]
Dominican Republic
El Salvador
Guatemala
Honduras
Mexico
Nicaragua
Panama
South America Argentina
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile
Colombia
Ecuador
Paraguay
Peru
Uruguay
Venezuela

Notes

Template:Notelist

References

Template:Reflist

External links

Template:The Walt Disney Company Latin America Template:Disney+ Template:Navboxes

  1. ↑ Template:Cite web
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  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Template:Cite web
  5. ↑ Template:Cite web
  6. ↑ Template:Cite news
  7. ↑ Template:Cite web
  8. ↑ Template:Cite web
  9. ↑ Template:Cite web
  10. ↑ Template:Cite web
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  13. ↑ Template:Cite web
  14. ↑ Template:Cite web
  15. ↑ Template:Cite web
  16. ↑ Template:Cite web
  17. ↑ Template:Cite web
  18. ↑ Template:Cite news
  19. ↑ Template:Cite web
  20. ↑ Template:Cite web
  21. ↑ Template:Cite web
  22. ↑ Template:Cite web
  23. ↑ Template:Cite web
  24. ↑ Template:Cite web
  25. ↑ Template:Cite web
  26. ↑ Template:Cite web
  27. ↑ Template:Cite web
  28. ↑ Template:Cite web
  29. ↑ Template:Cite web
  30. ↑ Template:Cite web
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