Disney’s attack on Netflix: the empire strikes back

There is this moment in “Star Wars” when the scoundrel Han Solo wants to flee from the planet Tatooine and the Imperial military. Your spaceship is battered, the enemy’s weapons are loaded. The only way out: the speed of light. Do a few maneuvers and calculations, then push a lever forward, and the hawk is already on its way in hyperspace and out of enemy range.

The Disney group, owner of the rights to the “Star Wars” universe, carried out a very similar move in early December. It also seemed a bit battered due to the coronavirus pandemic: amusement parks like Disneyland have been closed for months, film and series production is only possible on a limited basis. The company just announced a $ 2.8 billion loss in the last fiscal year and laid off 30,000 employees, streaming competitors like Netflix appear poised for an attack.

Disney plans to quadruple its subscribers by 2024.

Now Disney boss Bob Chapek and board chairman Bob Iger like Han Solo have pushed a lever forward. “We’re just getting started,” Chapek said at the end of a four-hour presentation to investors, and that can certainly be seen as a threat. A year ago, the group launched its Disney + streaming portal and announced that it would gain between 60 and 90 million subscribers worldwide by 2024. Competitor Netflix was then at 167 million and is now likely to have passed the 200 mark. millions. Now, as of December 2020, Disney already has 86.8 million Disney + subscribers. The company corrected its forecast, no, it boosted it at the speed of light: it should now be between 230 and 260 million, on all platforms even 350 million subscribers.

Subscription price should go up

Usually events like Disney Investor Day are pretty boring. Apple founder Steve Jobs spiced up these presentations with his “One More Thing” ads. But what Disney did at its event in early December, Jobs couldn’t have imagined either.

The abbreviation “DTC” was used over and over again. The direct-to-customer strategy means nothing more than that the group wants to get its content to the people as far as possible without third-party providers like cinemas or television stations. There is its own Disney + portal, the Hulu platform (currently 38.8 million subscribers) and the sports-focused ESPN + application (11.5 million). Now Star + will be added. In Europe, the new offer will be integrated into Disney +, so the price will increase by around a quarter in March. In Switzerland, access currently costs CHF 9.90 per month.

Above all, viewers will be interested in the content that Disney would like to use on its platforms, and there will be some surprises. The Star Wars universe should symbolize how the company wants to position itself: for example, there should be the “Obi-Wan Kenobi” series about the Jedi Knight, played by Ewan McGregor. The series “Lando” about the thief Lando Calrissian is planned. He also commissioned: a new film for which director Patty Jenkins (“Wonder Woman”) is responsible, the rather grim “The Bad Batch,” and two spin-offs from the hit series “The Mandalorian,” as well as a series featuring the C-3PO and R2-D2 robots.

Disney has presented an equally wide range of projects for other sectors. Then: adventures of superheroes from the Marvel universe, Pixar cartoons, documentaries and National Geographic series, new sports rights such as the SEC college football league, a series based on the “Alien” films and another with The protagonists of “Cars “Lightning McQueen and Mater.

Disney has brought together the who’s who of the entertainment industry

The presentation was so impressive because the company provided the who’s who of the entertainment industry with not just the actors, but also directors, authors, and producers and meticulously made sure not to leave any market unmentioned: Disney Princess Arrives By. For the first time from Southeast Asia, Ms. Marvel is portrayed by Pakistani-Canadian actress Iman Vellani, and Hamilton writer Lin-Manuel Miranda is responsible for the film “Encanto,” which will be set in Colombia. The African comic series “Iwájú” is produced as a cartoon project.

“The pandemic was an accelerator of what had already been suggested.”

Bob Chapek, Disney Chef

“I want to make sure the creative tubes are still full,” said Iger, who handed over the management to Chapek in February. “That’s important, especially because we want Disney + to be available around the world.” So there it was, the real message: there is a drawing by the company’s founder, Walt Disney, showing the links between an entertainment group, i.e. merchandise, TV rights, theme parks, music, magazines. Everything is connected to everything, and the center back then: high-quality content. To this day, nothing has changed in corporate philosophy, even if the issues have changed in the digital age. “The pandemic was an accelerator of what had already been suggested,” says Chapek. “We constantly follow the wishes of the audience.”

Although this strategy of adapting in times of crisis is initially impressive, of course it can also be said that the Disney Group can now afford to accept this year’s losses, spending more on its own content until 2024 per year. $ 8 billion and build studios in Los Angeles, England and Australia. It was also fitting that the carefree song “Hakuna Matata” from “The Lion King” could be heard on the corporate website as people waited for this crazy performance to begin. Oh yeah: there will also be a new project with real animals. Providing the music for this is no longer surprising: film music star Hans Zimmer and American singer Pharrell Williams. Who else?

Published: 12/24/2020, 8:27 pm