There's an obvious hole in the lineup of hardware that will be supported by Disney+ when it launches on Nov. 12. And that hole is shaped exactly like an Amazon Fire TV device. (Stick, cube, whatever. That's the shape.) Amazon was conspicuously left out of the early announcements, with no real sign that support is on the way.
But surely Disney+ won't omit the biggest streaming platform in the world , right?
Looks like it might. And the reason is what we always knew it would be — money.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Disney and Amazon can't come to an agreement over advertising fees. Or at least they haven't so far.
From the WSJ:
Amazon is pushing for the right to sell a substantial percentage of the ad space on Disney apps, and Disney has so far resisted, according to people familiar with the situation. Some of these people say they are optimistic the companies will reach an agreement. If they don't, Disney apps could be removed from Fire TV, the second-largest distributor of streaming TV apps. Disney has several apps, including for networks such as ABC, ESPN and Disney Channel.
Those last two sentences there are important, too. Not only may Disney+ not launch on Amazon Fire TV, but it's apparently possible that other Disney-owned properties could disappear from the platform, potentially making things even worse.
Of course, that depends more than a bit on what services you depend on to watch your Disney-owned content. If, say, you're perfectly happy with ABC and ESPN and Disney Channel via your Hulu subscription, which you can use on Amazon Fire TV, then maybe it's not a problem at all.
On the other hand, if you rely on the ABC app and the ESPN app and others a la carte — well, there could be issues.
That's all supposing Disney and Amazon don't actually come to an agreement, though. And chances are they will. Whose favor it ends up in is certainly up in the air — though it's worth mentioning that Amazon brings in several times more revenue that Disney.
And it's also worth mentioning that it's not like it'll be that difficult for consumers to watch Disney+ if they really want to. It'll be available on pretty much every other platform, including Roku , which is by far the most popular streaming platform in the United States — and has hardware as inexpensive as Amazon Fire TV.
