Streaming is not just about selling prospective subscribers TV series and films that could become your new favourites. The last few years, we’ve entered the era of sports streaming.

Amazon Prime Video has been showing live sports for years now, whether it’s live tennis: Premier League and Champions League football, and NFL’s Thursday Night Football. Apple TV+ bought the rights to ML; Netflix got into the game with American Football over the Christmas holidays and now Disney+ is trying its hand at live streaming football rights.

Before you get too excited The Walt Disney Company isn’t launching a move to disrupt Sky’s strangehold on Premier League football in the UK though we may see this rights as a testbed for if (or when) it ever decides to challenge Sky.

It’s a move that makes plenty of sense

Instead Disney+ is tapping into the growing market of women’s football as it’s bought the rights for the UEFA Women’s Champions League across Europe, starting from the 2025/26 season and running up until the 2029/30 season.

The five-year deal guarantess that Disney+ will be the home of all 75 football matches from the tournament, streamed live and, most importantly, at no extra cost to subscribers. Although who knows, given that all streaming services seem to increasing in cost, that doesn’t mean there won’t be additional ‘general’ price rises in the future.

We have to say that it’s an interesting move by Disney, and we’d say it’s a rather sensible one. The women’s football market is a growing one that’s gaining more recognition and a bigger audience with each season and this rights deal allows Disney to tap into what they’d probably call an ’emerging’ market.

But it also makes plenty of sense for Disney to make a move in the Women’s side of the sports market rather than the men’s. Given Disney has been one of the main producers of children’s content for young girls, it has the potential to introduce more girls into women’s football, and potentially help to grow the game even further.

Arsenal upset the odds to beat Barcelona just last week to win the Champions League for the first time (in its current format at least), what shocks, surprises and entertainment will happen in the next few seasons. The main place to see all the action if you live in Europe will be on Disney+.

It continues the move away from traditional means of broadcast such as getting sports through the antennae or even satellite dish, with the likes of Sky moving towards Internet with its Sky Glass TV and Sky Stream, or new platforms such as Freely, Samsung TV Plus and LG Channels.

We all better get use to our streaming overlords, the takeover has only just begun.