‘Star Wars’ Movies Head To Disney Linear Networks, Will Be Shared With Turner Nets Under New Deal
In addition to streaming on Disney+, all 11 live-action Star Wars movies will now also be available on Disney’s linear networks — including broadcast (ABC) and cable (FX nets, Freeform) — starting this month. The arrangement stems from Disney renegotiating the existing domestic licensing agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery’s Turner Networks, which will continue to carry the full suite of movies.
The development comes as the seven-year term of TNets’ deal for the first six Star Wars movies, consisting of the two George Lucas trilogies, expired at the end of September, with the windows on the newer films staggered and set to expire at different times over the next couple of years. The new co-exclusive multi-year deal aligns the terms of the 11 films for both the Disney and the Turner networks, which will end at the same time. The fate of the slate’s domestic linear TV rights beyond that has not been determined.
in a very competitive situation, Turner in 2016 landed a high-profile 10-title Star Wars movie package from Disney in a reported seven-year, $250M deal, while at the time licensing separately from Fox the very first Star Wars movie, the 1977 A New Hope, which that company controlled. After the 2019 Disney acquisition of Fox assets, the Star Wars library was united under the Disney umbrella., and the new licensing deal spans all 11 titles.
The 10 Star Wars titles included in the 2016 Disney-Turner deal include 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).
The Disney Star Wars linear rights era will kick off this Saturday, Oct. 7, on FX — which pursued the package seven years ago — with a marathon featuring the original Star Wars trilogy, A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, as well as the 2008 animated film Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which was not part of the Turner package.
The movies originally launched on TNT Sept 20, 2016 with a six-night launch event featuring the first six Star Wars movies whose rights under the original agreement came to an end seven years later, this September. The terms for the rest of the movies started once they became available to the TNets post-theatrical and premium windows.
Disney reportedly tried to buy back the rights — linear basic cable and companion ad-supported on-demand — from TNets’ parent company back in 2019, after the announcement of Disney+ as the streaming home for everything Star Wars and Marvel. Eventually, the two sides reached an agreement, with the linear rights remaining at Turner while the full Star Wars film library was made available on Disney+ within its first year.
