Disney just made a new TV deal for all 12 Star Wars movies that will allow them to play not just on Disney+, but its own suite of broadcast and cable channels as well as those owned by Turner Broadcasting.
Turner bought the rights to 10 of the films from Disney in 2016 for $250 million, in addition to a separate deal for A New Hope through Fox. That deal was then amended in 2019 with the debut of Disney+ but recently expired at the end of September. Now, under this new deal, every film is included (the 11 live-action ones as well as The Clone Wars) and they can air on Disney networks like ABC, FX and Freeform, as well as TNT, TBS, etc. It begins this weekend with the original Star Wars Trilogy (special editions, we’re sure) airing on FX Saturday, October 7.
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You can read more of the admittedly confusing details over on Deadline. But what does this mean for a regular person? Well, if you’re a Star Wars fan, probably not much. Certainly, you may already own them on some sort of physical media and have a Disney+ subscription if you ever want to check them out. The big difference really is that there are simply more places you may stumble upon them while flipping through the channels… if you even pay for cable anymore. Plus, you have to imagine it gives Disney more options of name-brand content it can air to fill gaps that might start to arise due to the ongoing actors’ strike. Name-brand content it already owned and had already been licensing, of course, but now can benefit from in more ways. What a scam the media is, right?
And yes, all the films will remain on Disney+ along with the new TV shows.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
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