Star Wars Is Heading To Network Television
With the bulk of television watching these days going to streaming sites like Netflix and Hulu, it’s easy to forget that network TV still exists. Of course, when it comes to old-school content delivery, large corporations like Disney know just how much money can still be earned by catering to the antennae and cable crowd. According to Deadline, starting this month, The House of Mouse is bringing all 11 live-action Star Wars movies to network television via the myriad of channels that fall under the Disney umbrella.
Through a deal between Disney and Warner Bros., all 11 live-action Star Wars films are coming to network TV.
The 11 live-action Star Wars films—sorry, fans of 2008’s animated Clone Wars movie—will be coming to both broadcast television through Disney-owned ABC and cable by way of the FX suite of channels and Freeform.
This new development includes a renegotiation with the current television home of Star Wars, Warner Bros. Discovery’s Turner Networks (TBS, TNT, etc.). This means that both Warner Bros. and Disney will share co-exclusivity of the film franchise when it comes to network television. As far as streaming, however, the eleven live-action films will remain exclusively on Disney+.
Yes, you read that right. The two biggest entertainment conglomerates in the world are actually teaming up when it comes to delivering Star Wars to all of your older relatives who still don’t understand that “streaming business.”
Now, if only Disney and Warner Bros. could come together for a Marvel VS DC movie, that would be a project worth two competitors doing business over.
Warner Bros. first struck a seven-year deal in 2016 through their Turner brand for the network rights to air 10 of the movies for $250 million. Turner was forced at the time to license Star Wars: Episode IV-A New Hope through 20th Century Fox due to the original 1977 film being the only one of the six Lucas-made films to be owned rather than simply distributed by the studio.
Disney’s 2019 acquisition of Fox and all of its assets put the company in the position to offer its competitor a new deal that encompasses all 11 of the live-action films. While the price Warner paid for this deal hasn’t been disclosed, it’s safe to say that it’s probably north of the figure they paid in 2016.
Not giving Turner the animated Clone Wars movie is particularly ironic, considering Warner Bros. was the studio that originally distributed the film theatrically back in 2008.
For those curious as to just what films are included in the Disney-Turner deal, here’s a list of all 11 Star Wars titles: A New Hope (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Return of the Jedi (1983), The Phantom Menace (1999), Attack of the Clones (2002), Revenge of the Sith (2005), The Force Awakens (2015), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), The Last Jedi (2017), Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) and The Rise of Skywalker (2019).
Disney kicked off this new era of Star Wars on TV with a marathon of the original trilogy as well as Star Wars: The Clone Wars—the only theatrically released Star Wars film that Disney didn’t include in either their 2016 deal with Turner or the current one. Not giving Turner the animated Clone Wars movie is particularly ironic, considering Warner Bros. was the studio that originally distributed the film theatrically back in 2008.
Now, if only Disney and Warner Bros. could come together for a Marvel VS DC movie, that would be a project worth two competitors doing business over.
