Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Entertainment
  3. News

Alibaba and Disney strike a deal to bring shows and movies to China

Lulu Chang
By
Disney to launch new streaming service
Image used with permission by copyright holder

You may not be able to access Facebook, WhatsApp, or Twitter in China, but really, who needs mass communication when you have mass entertainment, courtesy of Disney? Thanks to a new licensing deal between Alibaba Group’s entertainment unit and every child’s favorite film studio, viewers throughout China will be able to watch a wide range of Disney’s animated shows and movies. More than 1,000 episodes from Disney series are covered under the agreement, as are many of the studio’s most popular films.

The deal makes Alibaba the largest distributor of Disney animated content in China.

Recommended Videos

The films and shows will be available for viewing on Alibaba’s streaming video service Youku, as well as a number of other distribution channels. The new partnership between the two conglomerates arrives nearly two years after Disney’s own streaming video service, DisneyLife, ceased operations in China where it was live for just five months. Apparently, Chinese regulators ordered that the service be shut down. But now that a Chinese company is distributing Disney content, it looks like all systems are go this time around.

Related

Series like DuckTales and My Friends Tigger and Pooh are included under the deal, and around 600 episodes will be made exclusive to Alibaba’s distribution channels for two years after the agreement is enacted. Alibaba can also show more than 100 live-action and animated Disney films, including hits like Beauty and the Beast, Mulan, Frozen, and Pirates of the Caribbean. 

In total, Alibaba expects that the distribution agreement will allow around 30 million households to enjoy Disney content. In a press release, Youku president Yang Weidong said, “The addition of Disney content greatly enriches the library of quality international content on Alibaba’s media and entertainment ecosystem, giving us a leading edge in foreign content distribution in China.”

As it stands, Youku already reaches around 580 million devices and sees around 1.2 billion views each day, as per Alibaba’s news website Alizila. The platform is also said to have comparable licensing deals with other major studios like Warner Bros., Paramount, Fox, NBCUniversal, and Sony Pictures Television.

So if you’re planning a trip to China, you won’t be able to post photos of your travels to Instagram. But you’ll sure be able to watch all your favorite western movies.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Lulu Chang
Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
5 underrated Marvel movies and TV shows you should watch right now
A woman puts a leg on a man in Legion.

While the Marvel Cinematic Universe has popularized a slew of blockbuster theatrical movies and shows on Disney+, there are a few other productions worth looking into. That's even outside critically acclaimed shows like Daredevil that have been absorbed into Marvel Studios' catalog on Disney's streaming service.

A few of these shows range from both in and out of mainline MCU canon. Meanwhile, though not on the scale of other animated superhero movies, Marvel Animated Features produced a solid adaptation of an iconic storyline from The Incredible Hulk comic book series.
Legion (2017-2019)

Read more
Secret Invasion should have been an MCU movie event instead of a Disney+ show
Nick Fury enters a crypt in Secret Invasion.

The MCU is making its highly-anticipated return to the small screen after an eight-month absence with the six-episode limited series Secret Invasion. Samuel L. Jackson reprises his role as Nick Fury in a show that adapts one of Marvel's most infamous and ambitious storylines, where things get shaken up by the discovery of a years-long invasion by the shape-shifting Skrulls, who have replaced key figures in the Marvel Universe.

Secret Invasion arrives at a crucial point for the MCU. The once-mighty franchise is struggling to stay relevant amid a perfect storm of behind-the-scenes drama, increasingly uneven films and shows, and growing disinterest among audiences. Reviews for the show are mixed-to-positive -- it currently sits at a 69% Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes. Most critics agree the show is a slow burn, but a worthy showcase for the cast led by the always-reliable Jackson. However, there's a palpable and undeniable small-scale quality to the project, a surprise considering its comic book counterpart was arguably the event of the 2000s. Secret Invasion altered the balance of the comics' Marvel Universe, revealing several fan-favorites as Skrulls and incapacitating several key players, mainly the Illuminati, the Fantastic Four, and the Thunderbolts.

Read more
Disney shifts release dates for Marvel movies, Star Wars films, and Avatar sequels
wade-gasping-deadpool-2

The writers' strike has lasted about one-and-a-half months so far, and it doesn't appear to be ending anytime soon. And now, Disney is making some major schedule changes to almost all of its upcoming franchise films. Avatar fans are going to feel it the most. Avatar 3 has been pushed back a year from December 2024 to December 19, 2025. The other sequels, Avatar 4 and Avatar 5, have been delayed to December 21, 2029, and December 19, 2031, respectively. That's a three-year delay for both titles from their previous release dates.

Marvel's 2024 slate is also getting a big shake-up, with Captain America: Brave New World moving away from its summer opening slot on May 3, 2024, to July 26, 2024. The Thunderbolts movie is shifting from July 26, 2024, to December 20, 2024, the former release date for Avatar 3. That will make it only the second MCU movie to be released in December after Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Read more