by Thinus Ferreira
Revealing what the Mouse House has learnt from the video streaming wars, recently-returned Disney boss Bob Iger says The Walt Disney Company is going to reduce the amount of content it produces when it comes to TV shows and films - including for Disney+ - but that what is being made will be of higher quality and that Disney is open to licensing premium content to broadcasters again.
Bob Iger also hinted that Disney+, in the chase to add subscribers and gain scale, has been priced too cheap, hinting that price corrections in the form of price hikes are coming down the pipeline.
He said that Disney will very likely once again start licensing certain Disney content to broadcasters.
This will be good news to South African broadcasters and pay-TV companies like e.tv as well as MultiChoice and M-Net (DStv 101) that could no longer acquire Disney content after Disney decided to keep back its own content to build out its Disney+ video streaming service which it also launched in South Africa in 2022.
On Thursday Bob Iger spoke at the 2023 Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in San Francisco and according to American media reports explained that Disney is drastically slashing costs and scaling back on the volume of TV shows and films, saying Disney is now rather refocusing on quality content instead.
"It comes in the form of reducing the expense per content, whether it’s a TV series or a film, where costs have just skyrocketed in a huge way and not a supportable way in my opinion," he told delegates.
"As we look to reduce the content that we're creating for our own platforms, there probably are opportunities to license to third parties. For a while that was verboten or something we couldn’t possibly do, because we were so favouring our own streaming platforms."
"But if we get to a point where we need less content for those platforms, and we still have the capability of producing that content, why not use it to grow revenue? And that’s what we would likely do."
Bob Iger said "I think it's already clear to us that the exclusivity that we thought would be so valuable in growing Disney+ subs, while it has some value, wasn't as valuable as we thought".
"Content can actually exist on the traditional platform and on the streaming platform quite well without doing damage to either one, because actually a very, very audience is consuming on those platforms."
More picky about projects
About films and franchises like the Marvel universe and Star Wars, Bob Iger said "What we have to look at at Marvel is not necessarily the volume of Marvel storytelling, but how many times we go back to the well on certain characters".
"Sequels typically work well for us, but do you need a third or a fourth, for instance? Or is it time to turn to other characters? There's nothing in any way inherently off in terms of the Marvel brand. I think we just have to look at what characters and stories we are mining."
"If you look at the trajectory of Marvel over the next five years, you’ll see a lot of newness. Now, we're going to turn back to the Avengers franchise, but with a whole set of different Avengers, as an example."
"With Star Wars we made three what we called saga films, which is obviously the successors to George Lucas' first six."
"They did very well at the box office - tremendously well as a matter of fact. We've made two so-called stand-alones in Rogue One and Solo.
"Rogue One did quite well, Solo was a little disappointing to us. It gave us pause just to think maybe the cadence was a little too aggressive. And so we decided to pull back a bit. We still are developing Star Wars films. We're going to make sure that when we make one, that it's the right one, so we are being very careful there."
Bob Iger says quality content is a differentiator in the video streaming wars.
"There's so much consumer choice right now, and it comes back to, 'What is differentiated?' That's one thing obviously we have talked about, is those brands: Star Wars, Marvel and Disney and Pixar, for instance. But quality is also a differentiator."
"I think HBO proved that well in their halcyon days when high-quality programming made a big difference, and not volume."
"Because the streaming platforms require so much volume, one has to question whether that's the right direction to go, or if you can be more curated, more - I used the word 'judicious' a few times - but I guess, more picky about what you're making, and to concentrate on quality and not volume."
Bob Iger said he "generally bullish on streaming as a great consumer proposition, as a really robust platform to deliver high-quality content" and that "eventually, I think everything will migrate to streaming,” including ESPN as a direct-to-consumer offering".
"Now it's about getting our content pipeline right, making sure that we're making the right decisions and making sure that we’re making the right number of decisions in terms of how much we're making."
"Then it's really being mindful of a world that is not getting any less complicated, and in fact that technology only is going to disrupt more, and making sure that we're positioning those great brands and this great content-generation business in the right way to deliver the kind of value that shareholders need long term."
Disney+ too cheap
Bob Iger said at the conference that in the chase to sign up Disney+ subscribers, the streamer has probably been priced too cheap and will be adjusting the pricing.
"In our zeal to grow global subs, I think we were off in terms of our pricing strategy, and we're now starting to learn more about it and to adjust accordingly."
