Disney Reaches Licensing Deal With Sony Pictures Home Entertainment For DVD And Blu-Ray Releases Of New And Catalog Titles

deadline.com:

Disney has reached a licensing deal with Sony under which the latter’s home entertainment division will handle all Disney releases on DVD and Blu-ray as well as all physical media production.

It’s the latest sign of the decline of the physical disc trade. Netflix last fall unplugged its foundational disc-by-mail service and revenue from disc sales has continued to decline markedly in the streaming era, as indicated this month in a 2023 recap by the Digital Entertainment Group, a trade consortium.

The DEG’s preliminary annual report found robust demand for movie titles lifted overall revenue 17%, but disc sales and rentals dropped 25% to just shy of $1.6 billion.

The two studios declined to comment when contacted by Deadline. Sources familiar with the agreement, which was first reported by website The Digital Bits, said the new setup will operate on a licensing model.