Disney Notches Up Deals

LONDON: The Walt Disney Company announced a slew of deals at MIPCOM last week, with sales to Italy, Spain, the U.K. and Asia, among other territories, as well as an expanded agreement across the Middle East and North Africa.

A multi-year output deal has been closed with pay-TV platform OSN-Orbit Showtime Network, covering feature films in multiple windows, hit ABC Studios network series, the U.S. talk show The View and ABC News programming. Series featured in the deal include Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy and No Ordinary Family. Movies include Alice in Wonderland, The Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and Toy Story 3.

Rai Cinema inked a multi-year multi-genre content deal for its Italian free-TV channels that included feature films, animated Disney/Pixar titles, Walt Disney classics and ABC Studios series. This includes titles such as Criminal Minds, Brothers & Sisters, Detroit 1-8-7, Body of Proof and Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior. Further titles include A Christmas Carol, The Proposal, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Ratatouille, UP, Wall-E and the the animated classics Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty.

Meanwhile, No Ordinary Family has been picked up by broadcasters such as ABS-CBN in the Philippines, Channel Seven in Australia, Media Prima in Malaysia, SingTel mio TV in Singapore, TVNZ in New Zealand and Zee Network in India. European sales include Cuatro in Spain, Fox in Italy, Mediaset in Italy and UKTV in the U.K. Across Latin America, Sony Entertainment Television has licensed the series in a pan-regional pay-TV deal.

A multi-year free-TV feature output deal with Antena 3 has also been signed, expanding the volume and reach of its movies across Spanish television. From Disney’s slate of current live-action movies, including Alice in Wonderland and upcoming releases such as TRON: Legacy and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides will be made available to Antena 3 in their free-TV window. The channel will also offer viewers Disney/Pixar’s UP as well as Bolt, Princess and the Frog and the recent blockbuster Toy Story 3. The hit medical comedy Scrubs and drama Private Practice are also part of the deal.

Shanghai Media Group (SMG) renewed its agreement to produce a second season of The Amazing Race: China Rush in 2011.

Disney Media Distribution and Fox International Channels (FIC) have extended their multi-year agreement for the international broadcast network to bring first-runs of Disney’s portfolio of films on pay-TV to Asia on STAR Movies and Fox Family Movies. This exclusive agreement extends a ten-year long relationship that Disney has held with FIC in Asia. Under the terms of the agreement, STAR Movies and Fox Family Movies will bring all feature films from The Walt Disney Studios—including Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Feature Animation, Pixar, DreamWorks and Marvel—to their subscribers across 13 markets across Asia.