Disney has announced it will sell a large portion of its home entertainment division to Sony in order to continue the production of its DVDs, Blu-rays and 4K Blu-rays. The pair have struck a deal that covers both the manufacturing and distribution sides of things, which is certainly good news for 4K Blu-ray fans like ourselves.
However, before we get too excited we have to caveat some things. This deal is currently exclusive to North America, meaning distribution will only reach retailers in the US and Canada (no word on whether Mexico is included in this deal yet). That'll likely be disappointing news to our friends Down Under, as Disney pulled its physical media releases from Australia last year; this deal doesn't appear to reverse that decision, unfortunately. This also offers no security to the physical media market here in the UK, something we'd obviously like to see.
It also won't address the fact that, despite this being a predominantly US-focused deal, one of the biggest retailers has already dropped out of selling physical discs altogether. Best Buy, the county's largest specialist technology and entertainment retailer, purged its stock of 4K Blu-rays (and all other physical movie discs) recently, and it doesn't look like it'll be walking back on that decision.
That being said, Disney's renewed interest in producing more physical media discs does subdue our anxiety surrounding the death of 4K Blu-rays, even if this isn't the perfect solution. It's also worth noting that Disney will continue to manage the digital aspect of its home entertainment releases, including premium video on demand. There's also no word on how this will impact Disney Plus, although we expect interference to be minimal.
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