It's Disney's turn to launch a streaming service

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Disney

Can an almost century-old company learn from its glorious past and create a brave new future? Come on a small screen near you … eventually.

Disney has finally announced its long-awaited streaming service, but it will only be available in November in North America – and in some markets it will take much longer.

This is due to several factors, but mainly because Disney is still recovering rights to its content, sold to other streaming platforms before having its own aspirations.

It will take up to four years before all transactions have expired, the firm said. This delay could hinder Disney's chances of succeeding in the streaming market, described by CEO Bob Iger as his "highest priority".

However, during its launch, Disney + will become a mastodon streaming. The service will consolidate some of the company's leading franchises, including Pixar, Marvel, National Geographic and Star Wars, for a monthly subscription fee of $ 6.99, or $ 69.99 per year.

And because the firm recently released its checkbook – spending $ 70 billion for 20th Century Fox – Disney + will also incorporate content from recently acquired companies, such as the first 30 seasons of The Simpsons.

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More broadly, Disney also owns the ESPN sports network, which now has more than 2 million pay-per-view digital subscribers, and India's Hotstar, which has 300 million subscribers in a market that is expected to continue to grow extremely fast. Disney is also a majority shareholder in Hulu, the US streaming service that plans global expansion in the future, the company said.

Right to Disney +

These are all big moves that put Disney at the heart of a crowded but increasingly lucrative streaming market – a market in which the distinction is vital. Netflix plans to spend $ 15 billion on new content this year to achieve this goal. Last month, Apple launched its Apple TV + service, with the help of Oprah and her friends, who will create exclusive content.

Disney's strategy to rebadure its investors, it seems, consists in baderting this obvious fact: it has been doing so for a very long time.

The launch of Disney + took place in a suitable venue that has undergone many transformations in recent decades: Sound Stage 2, on the iconic campus of the company, in Los Angeles. Built in 1949, the studio was the space where the original Mary Poppins was shot, as well as, decades later, Pirates of the Caribbean. Both have announced new technologies in the cinema.

But Disney's illustrious past could become a hindrance. Last year, he sold 900 million movie tickets, generating more than $ 7 billion in revenue. He can not afford to lose the bulk of his business. Therefore, it will keep its big Disney + content until well after its usual end in home cinema and entertainment sales or download it).

Disney + subscribers will instead receive additional content, character-based miniseries from new movies or behind-the-scenes footage.

During the broadcast of the service, films directly available to Disney + will be available, such as the Christmas movie Noelle, played by Anna Kendrick, and the remake of Lady and the Tramp. The company promised that these films would be made with "all the care" of typical Disney movies, but as in the case of direct video in the past, consumers will surely not see them as belonging to the same category.

Oversubscribed?

More ambitious hopes will be set for exclusive series produced for Disney +, such as The Mandalorian, the first live Star Wars television series, which will be available from the launch of the service.

It's an expensive venture for Disney. It does not expect Disney + to make profits before 2023 at the earliest and, in the meantime, lose revenue by selling its content to other streaming providers. According to Netflix, the company would receive $ 150 million reports.

At $ 6.99 per month, Disney is launching a major challenge to Apple, which has not yet informed its customers of the cost of its service when it launches at the end of the year.

But above all, the unanswered question remains: how many subscription services can the public take? A generation of delighted "cord cutters" who have canceled traditional TV subscriptions for the benefit of streaming, may soon be wondering how much it would cost, you know, to reconnect the cord.