Carat has been named the new media agency of record for The Walt Disney Company Canada.

The announcement was made late yesterday, following a review of its North American business. Starcom was the incumbent MAOR in North America, but declined to defend the business.

Alastair Taylor, Carat Toronto’s VP managing director told MiC the agency was ‘very excited to be welcoming Disney into the fray’ but declined to discuss further details on the pitch process and win, citing an NDA with Disney.

Disney in Canada restricted its comment on the matter to the following statement:

‘As a result of our extensive media review process, we are very pleased to announce the Canadian media planning and buying responsibilities for The Walt Disney Company will now be handled by Carat. This includes all Canadian divisions of the Walt Disney Company including the Studio, Parks & Resorts and Disney Interactive Media Group. Transition is now underway to Carat.’

According to Ad Age, Disney’s overall US media business is worth a cool $1 billion, helping it to land in the #7 slot on the publication’s 100 Leading National Advertisers report with a total of $2 billion in US ad spend. In the US, Disney’s media business was split between Carat (Parks & Resorts) and a Publicis Groupe consortium (Studio, Home Entertainment, Interactive/Gaming).