Following a pre-launch sale earlier this month, Disney+ is now available in 10 countries throughout South America — little more than a year after Disney debuted its new SVOD platform in the U.S. Latin countries include Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama and Uruguay, with service costing $5.99 monthly or $59.99 per year. Disney Plus is also available in a package with Globoplay Brazil.

Disney Latin American will include new original productions of fiction series, talk shows, documentaries, live shows, and locally-relevant content and renowned talent from the region. 70 local productions are currently in different stages of production in South America, reinforcing the Company’s commitment to producing local content developed by and for Disney+ with production companies from Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina. The platform also includes acquired productions that exclusively premieres on Disney+.

For kids, young adults and families, “We need contents more than ever,” said Cecilia Mendoza, head of content development at Disney Latin American.

eMarketing analyst Matteo Ceurvels  wrote in a post: “We now expect the number of subscription OTT video viewers in Latin America to grow by 27.5% this year to 117.2 million,” “That’s a roughly 16-percentage-point increase from the 11.6% growth we previously anticipated in our September 2019 forecast.”

Disney Plus has already launched in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, France, Portugal, Belgium, Finland, Iceland, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Australia, New Zealand, India, Indonesia and Japan. Most of those being added this year.

With more than 73 million subscribers through the most-recent fiscal quarter, Disney eyes Latin America as the platform’s next big growth sector.

Elsewhere, Disney Plus is slated to roll out in:

• Eastern Europe over the course of a year, starting in 2021.
• Asia-Pacific over the course of the two years starting with Japan’s launch this past June.

The Walt Disney Company Southeast Asia also announced today the appointment of Ahmad Izham Omar as executive director of content & creative for its streaming service Disney Plus. According to Variety, Ahmad’s appointment takes effect immediately, and he will be based in Singapore. A spokesperson said: “Omar joins the team at an important juncture when Disney Plus is expanding its footprint in Southeast Asia, and his strategic vision, breadth of experience and outstanding leadership will be key in steering Disney’s creative engine and delighting subscribers with the magic of our storytelling,”

In October, the company said streaming would be Disney’s top programming focus, a realignment it plans to explain in detail in December. At a December 10 investor event, Disney’s also likely to unveil new programming set to come to Disney Plus.

Disney Plus is the Hollywood media giant’s hub for watching almost everything Disney and its brands has produced. Disney Plus streams shows and movies from Disney franchises, including Star Wars, Marvel and Pixar, and all the family-friendly movies and animation from Disney itself. It also has originals, like The Mandalorian, as well as programming it acquired by taking over Fox, such as The Simpsons and the X-Men movies. 

Disney started ratcheting up the streaming release of new movies too. In July, Disney Plus got a bump in interest as it released a film version of the award-winning hit musical Hamilton, recorded as a live stage capture of the original Broadway cast. This was followed by the release of its live-action remake of Mulan. The mega-budget film was released on Disney Plus in September as a $30 add-on to the service’s regular subscription price. Pixar’s latest animated film, Soul, is the next movie headed straight to streaming on Disney Plus instead of cinemas. Pixar‘s Soul will debut on Dec. 25.

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