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December 9, 2024
Disney continues frontload its branded Disney+ subscription streaming service with expanded content offerings that now include expedited access to tentpole theatrical releases, live news and the ESPN tile — the latter available as of Dec. 4.
The plan is to drive scale and bring a full live-sports offering to Disney+ in the U.S. to 175 million households, including Hulu, Hulu + Live TV, and excluding Disney + Hotstar in India, according to CEO Hugh Johnston.
Speaking Dec. 9 at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference in New York City, Johnston said the recent additions of Pixar’s Inside Out 2 and Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine, the No. 1 & 2 theatrical releases worldwide this year, to Disney+ is resonating with subscribers.
“Those big tentpoles do drive people into the service,” Johnston said. “And once they’re in, they tend to stay. They also tend to drive viewership of the movies that we had before.”
The CFO said that the Thanksgiving week success of Moana 2, which topped $600 million at the global box office through Sunday, is driving streaming interest in the 2016 original.
“It’s doing incredibly well right now because people sort of like to refresh on what it is, what the stories were, and all of that,” Johnston said.
The executive contends that with a mixture of live news (ABC News), sports (ESPN) and general family entertainment, Disney+ is appealing to everyone in the family.
“There’s so many potential elements of where we can take this thing,” he said. “It has the potential to be truly the portal not only into all things Disney, but over time, obviously, we may license some other things to be on the platform as well. I think it can be the go-to entertainment asset.”
Indeed, to Johnston, the inclusion of live sports access, acts as a deterrent to dropping service, of subscriber churn.
[ESPN] creates in many ways an objector to churn,” he said. “And when you think about what drives churn…there’s not that much I need right now, and it’s easy for me to get out of it. So, let me churn out and then I’ll come back in later.”
With a diversified content slate, Johnston contends the idea to drop Disney+ in the home due to seasonality can be nipped in the bud.
“What you really need in the household is one objector, somebody to say, ‘no, we can’t turn it off.’ It may be someone who likes general entertainment. It may be the kids movies and things like that. It may be sports. It may be news. And by virtue of putting all of these assets in one place, you really see the churn go down.”
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