On 2 October, Disney announced a licensing deal with Netflix. Percy Jackson, Ice Age and dozens of other titles have been available since 4 October on a platform that Disney's previous chief likened to a nuclear arsenal in the hands of an enemy. Josh D'Amaro, who replaced Bob Iger in March 2026, takes a different approach to the catalogue.
Disney has struck a non-exclusive licensing deal with Netflix that brings a selection of titles from the Disney, ABC and FX catalogues to Netflix.
From 4 October, the first two seasons of the series Percy Jackson and the Olympians and all five instalments of the Ice Age franchise are available. The window is three months. The third season of Percy Jackson debuts on Disney+ on 20 November, seven weeks after the earlier seasons became available on Netflix. Ice Age: Boiling Point hits cinemas on 5 February 2027, and the five films in the series expire on Netflix exactly then.
In the coming months, the animated films Soul, Elio and Raya and the Last Dragon will be added globally from early 2027. Among TV shows, the deal includes Will Trent, Shifting Gears, Tracker, Felicity, Fresh Off the Boat and This Is Us.
The titles remain available on Disney+ and Hulu at the same time. For them, Netflix is a second distribution channel.
Netflix as distribution infrastructure ahead of its own premieres
Disney explains the deal as a visibility strategy. Netflix has passed 325 million subscribers, roughly 2.5 times as many as Disney+ last officially reported. The last reported figure was approximately 131 million in September 2025. Disney stopped reporting subscriber numbers in August 2025 and moved to profitability metrics.
A viewer who catches up on the second season of Percy Jackson on Netflix will have to wait for the third on Disney+.
Jo Redfern, SVP Digital at Coolabi and a former Disney employee, put it this way in a LinkedIn post on Monday: “When there's infinite content and platforms 'exclusivity = anonymity' as I've said often.”
Ben Liebmann, who works on media strategy, added a comment: “The streamers' libraries are now effectively infinite, certainly from a consumer's point of view, and there's only so much value in keeping everything inside Disney+ where a huge amount of it will simply disappear into the ether.”
D'Amaro reversed what Iger protected like nuclear weapons
In 2022, Bob Iger likened licensing content to Netflix to “selling nuclear weapons technology to a Third World country, and now they're using it against us”. He used that to justify pulling Disney content from Netflix after the launch of Disney+ in 2019.
D'Amaro took over as CEO on 18 March 2026 as Iger's successor. He closed the deal less than seven months after taking the job.
In Q2 of fiscal 2026, the streaming division reported operating income of $582 million, up 88% year on year, with an operating margin above 10% for the first time. At the same time, D'Amaro plans to expand Disney+ from spring 2027 with games, merchandise and experiences.
Redfern summed up the shift by quoting her podcast co-host Andy Williams: “I guess the new boss (D'Amaro) thinks differently from the old boss (Iger).” And she added her own analysis: “D'Amaro appears to have zoomed out and is looking at the business as a wider value chain.”
Netflix, meanwhile, is continuing a strategy it began earlier with a partnership with YouTube creators in its children's section. Disney has now added content from its premium catalogue.
The titles have been available on Netflix since 4 October 2026. Availability varies by region.
Comments