On 4 December 2012, Netflix announced that they had acquired exclusive U.S. rights to movies from Walt Disney Studios. This deal can put Netflix on the same tier with pay per view giants HBO, Showtime and Starz. The deal is scheduled to take effect in 2016, but Netflix now has the ability to stream some of the older Disney titles such as the 1941 Dumbo, the 1951 Alice in Wonderland and the 1986 The Great Mouse Detective along with several others.
The Disney acquisition is a big blow to Starz which currently has the rights to Disney movies including Pixar films and the Marvel superheroes pictures within 8 months of theatrical release. This deal could not have come at a worse time for Starz because its contract with Sony pictures also expires in 2016. This could leaves Starz with only original programming after both deals expire.
Netflix currently has nonexclusive rights to products from Paramount Pictures, Lionsgate and MGM as well as an array of library titles from other studios. The only thing really missing from the Netflix library (in my opinion) were recent Warner Brothers and their related media productions and apparently Netflix is seeking to remedy that as well.
All in all, Disney on Netflix expands their library making it more attractive and that could be a deal maker for some potential Netflix customers.