Disney+ subscribers lose premium video option (again) – but only in certain countries

TV remote pointing at Disney+ app (blurred with bokeh).

Quick Summary

Dolby Vision is no longer available on Disney+ across 11 countries in Europe.

Disney was found to have impinged on HEVC patents owned by InterDigital in the US, which has resulted in the high-end picture technology being removed.

Millions of Disney+ subscribers have once again lost access to Dolby Vision, even when paying for Premium membership.

Disney has had to remove the HDR option from its streaming service after losing a patent case filed by US firm InterDigital. It affects 11 countries across Europe.

In February, we reported that both Dolby Vision and 3D streaming options were removed from Disney+ across EU member states. At the time, Disney said that they were unavailable due to "technical challenges".

It became apparent that the enhanced picture services were suspended due to a dispute with InterDigital, which claimed the technology used by Disney impinged on its patents. An injunction had been imposed by a German court.

However, it seemed Disney found a workaround and Dolby Vision was restored in countries outside of Germany itself. Now that is no longer the case.

According to InterDigital (via FlatpanelsHD), a new injunction has been imposed by the Unified Patent Court. This covers several countries in the EU (not the UK): "The Mannheim Local Division of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) ruled that InterDigital is entitled to an injunction over Disney's infringement of an InterDigital patent covering certain video encoding techniques related to HEVC and confirmed the validity of this patent," it said.

"The UPC is a pan-European patent court which issues decisions that apply across multiple countries in the European Union (EU); here, the injunction against Disney spans 11 EU countries."

Disney has responded with confirmation: "As a result of litigation before a European patent court, we have been required to make changes to the availability of Dolby Vision and 3D in Denmark and several neighbouring countries," it said.

"We are disappointed that we have had to do this, and we share our customers' frustration."

It has also been revealed by FlatpanelsHD that Amazon Prime Video, which uses similar streaming technology, has brokered a deal with InterDigital so that it can continue to offer Dolby Vision to subscribers.