‘Planet Earth’, ‘Blue Planet’, and More BBC Nature Docs are Leaving Netflix in December

UPDATED 11/26/19 at 1:15 p.m. ET: This article has been updated to include a statement from Discovery.
Pour one out for the nature lovers. On Wednesday, Netflix revealed that more than a dozen BBC nature documentaries, docuseries, and specials will be leaving the service in December, including Planet Earth, Blue Planet II, and the Life franchise. While this may be a huge loss for many subscribers, there’s a small silver lining to this story: it’s likely that all of the BBC nature documentaries leaving Netflix will be avaialble to watch on Discovery’s forthcoming streaming service, which is currently expected to launch in 2020.
Yesterday, Netflix released their official December line-up, as well as the dozens of titles leaving the platform throughout the month. While Netflix will be saying goodbye to huge Disney titles like Thor: Ragnarok and Star Wars: Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, many noticed that a slew of BBC nature documentaries will be leaving early in the month, as well. Here is the full list of BBC nature documentaries and docuseries leaving Netflix on December 2, according to the streaming giant:
Africa: Season 1
Blue Planet II: Season 1
Frozen Planet: On Thin Ice
Frozen Planet: Season 1
Frozen Planet: The Epic Journey
Life
Life On Location
Life Story
Nature’s Great Events: Series 1
Nature’s Great Events: Diaries: Series 1
Planet Earth II
Planet Earth: Season 1
The Blue Planet: A Natural History of the Oceans: Season 1
The Hunt: Season 1
The Making of Frozen Planet: Series 1
This list may look pretty exhaustive, but nature fans shouldn’t despair quite yet. Earlier this year, Discovery announced that it will be launching a global SVOD service fueled by a new content partnership with BBC Studios. According to the press release, the streaming service will be “powered by BBC’s world-famous natural history” catalogue, including “iconic Planet Earth titles and popular categories such as science and technology, adventure and exploration, history, space, animals and more.”

The release goes on to say that the partnership “will make Discovery the exclusive global home of BBC landmark natural history programmes in SVOD, including the Planet Earth, Blue Planet and Life collection of titles, the recently lauded Dynasties and others, as well as future BBC-commissioned landmark series from BBC Studios.” The still-untitled streaming service will be available in all territories outside the U.K., Ireland, and Greater China and is slated to launch in 2020.
With that information in mind, roughly half of the BBC nature docs leaving Netflix will definitely be available to stream on Discovery’s forthcoming streaming service. In an email to Decider, Discovery confirmed that the following titles will be available on the new SVOD service:

Blue Planet: A Natural History of the Oceans (2001)
Planet Earth (2006)
Nature’s Great Events (2009)
Life (2009)
Frozen Planet (2011)
Africa (2013)
Life Story (2014)
The Hunt (2015)
Planet Earth II (2016)
Blue Planet II (2017)
Of course, even after these BBC docs depart, there will still be plenty of nature content to stream on Netflix. Chief among them is Our Planet, a Sir David Attenborough-narrated docuseries about the world’s most extraordinary animals — and perhaps Netflix’s clearest shot at the BBC. Is nothing sacred?
For the full list of titles leaving Netflix in December 2019, check out our breakdown.

Where to stream Planet Earth