After 11 years, Disney is pulling the plug on Disney Family Movies On Demand — with the service’s shutdown coming just days before the launch of the Mouse House’s Disney Plus.
Disney Family Movies, which cost between $5-$10 per month, has been available via pay-TV providers in the U.S., including Comcast Xfinity, Charter Communications, Verizon Fios, Cox Communications, Altice USA’s Optimum and AT&T’s U-verse.
As of Oct. 31, 2019, Disney Family Movies will no longer be available, according to a notice on Comcast’s site. Recent movies featured on the subscription VOD service included “The Princess Diaries,” “Enchanted” starring Amy Adams and Patrick Dempsey, “National Treasure: Book of Secrets” with Nicolas Cage, and Tim Allen-starrer “The Santa Claus 3: The Escape Clause,” as well as “Pinocchio,” “Honey, I Blew Up the Kid,” “Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch,” “Encino Man” and “Oliver & Company.”
The end of Disney Family Movies comes as the media conglomerate throws all of its muscle into Disney Plus, set to debut Nov. 12 with a monthly price of $6.99. It will first be available in the U.S., Canada and the Netherlands, followed a week later by Australia and New Zealand.
Disney Plus will be the first time movies and shows from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and other brands will be available in a unified streaming service, including films from the “Disney Vault” that have been selectively released on home video. In the first year of launch, Disney Plus will include 500 catalog movie titles and 7,500 episodes of current and past TV shows, the company has said.
Among the movies coming to Disney Plus are classics like “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” “Fantasia,” “Dumbo,” “Cinderella,” “101 Dalmatians,” “Alice in Wonderland,” and “Sleeping Beauty,” and others including “The Sound of Music,” “The Fox and the Hound,” “Bedknobs and Broomsticks,” “The Shaggy D.A.,” “The Black Hole,” “Tron,” and “The Muppet Movie.”
Disney Family Movies, first launched in 2008, offered a rotating selection of about a dozen feature-length films each month along with shorts, featurettes and other bonus content — all without ads. The service, which carried the tagline “Magic Plays Here!”, was operated by the company’s Disney-ABC Television Distribution group.