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The keys to the Disney Vault are being handed over to Sony (at least when it comes to DVDs, Blu-ray discs and other physical media).
It’s been a busy few months for the DVD business, with Netflix announcing its intention to exit the DVD-by-mail business and Best Buy saying that it would stop selling DVDs and Blu-ray discs in-store.
Now, Disney has decided to exit the physical media space as well, switching to a licensed model via an agreement with Sony Entertainment. The deal will see Sony market, sell and distribute new releases and library titles from Disney.
A Disney source notes that the company regularly evaluates its go-to-market approach, and that rapidly evolving changes in consumer behavior and media consumption spurred on the change.
Disney joins Warner Bros. Discovery and Universal in deciding that sharing resources is a better path forward for a physical media business in decline. In 2020, Warner Bros. and Universal announced a joint venture (now called Studio Distribution Services) that would handle the production, sales, marketing and distribution of their DVD and Blu-ray businesses. SDS also handles DVD sales and distribution for partners like STX, PBS and Neon.
But the move by Disney is a symbolic one for the studio, which has a long history of embracing new trends in home entertainment to bring its films and TV shows to consumers. The company was early to VHS (it released Mary Poppins in the format in 1980) and its decision to back Sony’s Blu-ray over Toshiba’s HD DVD format helped propel that disc format to victory in the mid-aughts.
And the “Disney Vault” — a marketing gimmick in which it released some library titles on home video for only limited periods of time — was one of the most successful of its time.
Of course, streaming upended physical media, but as THR noted late last year, some strategic decisions by streaming services (notably removing some library titles and adding advertising) could result in a comeback for the format, at least from consumers who value a film or show enough to want to watch it even if it gets removed at some point in the future.
Even filmmakers have gotten involved, with Oppenheimer director Chris Nolan urging fans to buy Blu-ray editions of the film in case it ever vanishes from streaming, and noting the care he puts into the physical release of his films.
