TIM secures exclusive Disney+ deal in Italy

Telecom Italia has been announced as the exclusive partner for Disney+ in the country, with services set to be launched on March 24.

With the content and connectivity worlds becoming increasingly intertwined, telcos who are not able to offer a TV service within a bundle might look less attractive. This is the theory, which still needs to be genuinely ratified, though bundling content into connectivity packages is certainly not going to do any harm. With Disney+, Telecom Italia (TIM) has found a very attractive partner.

“We are proud that Disney has chosen TIM as its strategic partner in Italy,” said CEO Luigi Gubitosi. “This agreement comes within the strategy adopted by TIM to pursue alliances with major international players in various segments, to offer cutting-edge products and services.

“Adding Disney+ gives a major boost to the strategy of TIMVision as Italy’s leading aggregator of premium content in the Italian TV industry, in a context where convergence between telecommunications and content will play an increasingly key role in the group’s future, thanks to the development of ultrabroadband and 5G.”

Available across all devices, the TIMVision content platform does look to be an attractive proposition. While some telcos have chosen to secure fortunes through owning content rights, TIM has gone the more steadfast, and perhaps more sensible, direction of becoming a content aggregator. In fairness to TIM, it has done a pretty good job in creating a decent offer, one which will only be enhanced by Disney+ content.

Although Disney has been quite quiet over the last few weeks, it did proclaim during the earnings call that Disney+ had secured 28 million subscriptions in the first six weeks. Perhaps more impressive, is these numbers are only representative of the US market.

Outside the US, streaming video on-demand (SVoD) services have been gathering momentum. Uptake has not been on the same aggressive scale everywhere compared to the US, though bundling content packages in with local connectivity service providers has been a successful venture for Netflix to date. Taking these lessons to heart, Disney is targeting Italy with TIM, has partnered with Sky in the UK and Verizon in the US.