The Disney channels have long been a staple for young children and families across the UK. These beloved channels first started arriving on our screens more than 2 decades ago, but in a shocking move, this impressive run is set to end for Sky & Virgin Media customers on 1st October 2020 as the Disney channels leave these paid TV services.
We’re sure this will be unfortunate news for many households across the UK, and it’s also bound be a blow to Sky & Virgin Media as they’ll be losing valuable family programming from their schedules when The Disney Channel, Disney XD, and Disney Junior are all removed from our TV guides on October 1st.
This move comes after the UK’s largest paid TV providers failed to reach a new agreement with Disney to license the channels, but Disney have pledged to move all the content from that’s currently available on these channels to their new on demand streaming service Disney+. In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney said: “The direct-to-consumer service, which garnered more than 54.5 million subscribers worldwide in its first seven months, will now premiere all the latest films, series and specials from the three Disney Channels, along with offering a rich and expansive back catalogue of Disney Channel titles in the U.K., including Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Descendants 3 and Phineas and Ferb,”
If your household would like to continue watching this content from October, you’ll need to sign up to Disney+ if you haven’t already. At only £5.99 per month or £59.99 per year, it is great value and the app is already available on Sky Q boxes. Virgin Media customers will need another way to access the Disney+ app however as it’s not available on the current Virgin Media TV boxes. Disney have made the app available on many popular Smart TV’s, but if it’s not available directly on yours, we can highly recommend a Chromecast.
