TheWalt Disney Company has appointed Luke Bradley-Jones as the boss of its planned Disney+ subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service for Europe and Africa, although Disney doesn't have plans to launch Disney+ in South Africa or Africa when Disney+ makes its debut on 12 November 2019 in the United States at $6.99 (R106.78) per month.
The Disney+ streaming service won't be launching in South Africa until at least 2022 since Africa is not listed as one of Disney's "major regions".
Disney is likely underestimating Africa and specifically the South African market where existing video streaming services like Netflix South Africa, Amazon Prime Video and MultiChoice's Showmax as the major competitors as well as some minor players are battling it out for OTT SVOD market share.
Many South African viewers are asking daily about Disney+ and have said they'll pay R100 per month as an alternative to Netflix and Showmax, to get access to the avalanche of new and original streaming content that Disney will make available on Disney+ from launch.
South African video content consumers simply won't wait to watch buzzy new series specifically produced for Disney+ - ranging from the first Star Wars live-action drama series The Mandalorian, to a live-action High School Musical series, Marvel series like Loki with Tom Hiddleston reprising his film role, as well as The Falcon and The Winter Soldier; including a growing collection of animation series ranging from a revived Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Monsters at Work.
Now Disney has appointed Luke Bradley-Jones as the senior vice president of direct-to-consumer and general manger of Disney+ for Europe and Africa.
Luke Bradley-Jones who will start as the Disney+ Europe and Africa boss only in early-2020, will be based in London in the United Kingdom and will be responsible for managing the Disney+ streaming service for Disney in Europe and Africa.
Luke Bradley-Jones will report to Jan Koeppen, president of television and direct-to-consumer for Europe and Africa, and Michael Paull, president of Disney Streaming Services. He will also work with Ricky Strauss, president of content and marketing for Disney+.
Luke Bradley-Jones was previously the chief marketing officer at Britain's Sky UK pay-TV service where he was responsible for brand strategy, product and content marketing, as well as customer engagement across all of Sky TV's broadband and mobile products.
Before joining Sky, Luke Bradley-Jones spent five years at BBC Studios, the British public broadcaster’s commercial arm, initially joining as head of strategy before rising to managing director of BBC.com and Global iPlayer, responsible for the BBC's online, mobile and digital video-on-demand business.
He spent two years in the United States where he launched BBC.com and built out a digital VOD business through partnerships with Apple, Netflix, Xbox and Yahoo.
