Disney Plus Available in 40 More Countries in June

It’s safe to say that, the way things are going in the world, we could all use some good news… and fans of Disney in more than 40 countries get to receive just that: the company’s premier subscription service, Disney Plus, will be available in a number of European and Middle East countries in June. This is practically a follow-up to the announcement made back at the end of January: a specific date for each country instead of the “summer 2022” timeframe, as well as the cost of subscription for each one.

The expansion will be happening in stages: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine Territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen will go first on June 8th. Then Albania, Andorra, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Kosovo, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Malta, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey and the Vatican City will follow on June 14th. Israel will be getting Disney Plus on June 16th.

The monthly cost of subscribing to Disney Plus in most European countries is either €7.99 or €8.99, presumably depending on the local VAT applied to services (anyone interested in the same cost for countries using other currencies can check out Disney’s official table here). This cost is quite competitive, considering that it offers all the features found in e.g. Netflix’s Premium tier of €13.99 — such as 4K/HDR and Dolby Atmos support, four concurrent streams, up to ten devices for downloads etc. — for much less. Disney has already announced that there will also be a more affordable, ad-supported tier for Disney Plus in the future, but Europe and most other territories will have access to it sometime in 2023.

From an exclusive content availability standpoint, June certainly works for Disney. The service will have offered interesting TV series and films in the previous months — such as West Side Story, Turning Red, Moon Knight and Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi — while the next Marvel show, Ms. Marvel, will be available on June 8. Then over the rest of 2022 new subscribers have more exclusive AAA productions to look forward to, such as the BayMax TV series, the Limitless With Chris Hemsworth documentary series, more Marvel series — such as She-Hulk and Secret Invasion — as well as the third season of The Mandalorian and the new Star Wars: Andor show.

Film fans, meanwhile, have a number of heavy hitters to look forward to: released on Disney Plus at some point in 2022 will be Robert Zemeckis’ live-action adaptation of Pinocchio, Rise (focusing on the life of NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo), David Lowery’s Peter Pan & Wendy as well as all Marvel and animated movies released in cinemas until the end of September. These include the likes of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Lightyear and Thor: Love and Thunder.

All of the above should greatly help Disney’s premium service expand its customer base considerably over the course of the year, distance itself from HBO Max and maybe even close in on Netflix at some point. In order to hit its target of 230 million subscribers by 2024 Disney Plus… kind of has to, no?