Disney CEO Bob Chapek called Disney+ a “lifestyle gateway to Disney fandom” and streamed the bond of a “rebuilt” company that would never have survived and thrived for a century had it not experienced bold swings .
A question-and-answer session at the Paley Center for Media’s International Council Summit in New York, titled “The Walt Disney Company: The Next 100 Years,” took place as Disney shares slumped. The sell-off followed the release of yesterday’s earnings results, which showed big losses from streaming, as Wall Street now sees the opposite.
“Given our three-year journey, we’re very pleased with where we’re getting Disney+ from nothing to over 160 million homes, but at the same time we recognize that our investor base has an increasing desire to make sure that there .” that’s where it comes out,” Chapek said. And there is one, he promised. Prices started low and can go up, increasing average revenue per user and helping control costs. An AVOD service is running. “Remember, we’ve only been working on this for three years,” he said. “We plan to make Disney+ all that it can be, knowing that our investors expect us to see a return on this investment in the near term.”
As the company emerged from Covid, it faced a lack of new content, which was a challenge but also limited costs, the CEO argued. “Now it’s like the floodgates have opened and all this content is coming our way. The good news is that we have a lot of great content and create a lot of subs for us. The bad news is that all those charges that got the green light years ago finally came through the gate and hit us all at once. We hope that it will return to normal very, very soon.” The company forecast profitability in streaming by the end of fiscal 2024.
The advent of streaming, Chapek said, has changed the nature of programming. “People don’t see the streaming business as programming, but it’s just as much programming because you have to look at sub ads, you have to look at churn, you have to look at engagement. And every style, every piece, every content reacts differently to all these levers.”
“Essentially, we treated streaming – when we started because we didn’t really know it – like old media. If you had a movie, it was treated as cinema. And something episodic was treated like television. But what we learned. is that it’s its own thing.” Now the big lift is to “streamline and adapt all that data and learn from it and then bring it back to what’s ultimately going to be created.”
“It’s no longer about what comes out of the pipeline and where to put it. That was the first three years. What needs to be done now will be in the pipeline in three years. We didn’t even get the benefit of it. But it’s coming.”
Associated with this is a large number of initiatives linking streaming with Disney parks and products, along with a large amount of data and customer information. The goal is to create a lifestyle brand of the future, including next-generation stories, the executive told the audience in midtown Manhattan. The past two years have been a “seriously underway” at the Disney technology group. It’s working on a range of “custom and personal” tools tailored by engineers and designers to cater to executives like the minds of Lucasfilm, Marvel and Disney. “You’ll put those tools in the hands of the Kathleen Kennedys and the Kevin Feiges and the Dana Waldens to really create the next level of storytelling that’s uniquely yours.”
On the film front, Chapek reiterated his long-standing view that theater is a safe zone for tentpoles and blockbusters, but “Other than that, it gets a little more sketchy … I think the other genres, the other demographics, are a little more challenged and the question.” , whether they ever come back in any meaningful way is anyone’s guess. Stream offers flexibility. “If they come back, we’ll be delighted to return to theaters as we have a long and distinguished history of games in more than one revenue stream. But if not, the good news is that we now have a very large streaming company .”
Chapek, who became CEO in early 2020 and spent more than three decades with the company, had a metaphor for managing the company’s portfolio in the current landscape. “I liken it to a manual car,” he said, alternating between the accelerator, brake and clutch.
The focus, he said, should be “customer lifetime value.” More so than its media peers, Disney is able to look beyond film, television and digital media to drive that customer value. For example, on the drawing board is a new planned community outside Palm Springs for Disney fans 55 and older, known as “those who want to live the next chapter of their lives the Disney way.”
Chapek lobbied for new pricing and reservation systems at theme parks that were developed during the Covid lockdown. They helped drive traffic and improve the guest experience, but also sparked some controversy. The old systems are outdated “and treated everyone like one size fits all… We will wear it as a badge of honor,” he said. “The only thing that was clear was that people do not want to be treated equally,” he said. Some customers are on a budget, others want a more “tailored” experience.
He said visits to virtual theme parks are unlikely, despite the burgeoning metaverse. But a look behind the scenes is possible. “People love to walk out of attractions and see exactly how these spirits work in the Haunted Mansion. [They] Say, “I want to check it out. That’s usually why attractions stop… We can give you the ability to virtually leave the amusement park and find out what makes it tick.”
Then if you watch Disney+, The haunted house Film is served as first choice and not buried on page four.”
Personable, soft-spoken and collected in public appearances, Chapek got a little emotional as he recalled the Covid shutdown — of Parks and everyone else — just weeks into his tenure as Disney CEO. He had operated parks years before and said the worst disaster to date had been halted for several days by a hurricane and even that was “almost unimaginable”.
Writer: Jill Goldsmith
Source: Deadline
Joseph Fearn is an entertainment and television aficionado who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a keen eye for what’s hot in the world of TV, Joseph keeps his readers informed about the latest trends and must-see shows.
