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"We realized that we could create significant value by buying these assets as part of a direct sales strategy to consumers," he said at an industry conference .
Disney President and CEO Bob Iger said his 2017 wedding parade with Rupert Murdoch and 21st Century Fox's assets laid the foundation for his studio's emerging streaming television strategy, which included ensuring control of Hulu via a historic agreement with Comcast.
Iger told Tuesday at the Moffett Nathanson Media and Communications Summit in New York that a chance meeting with Murdoch in August 2017, which ultimately led to discussions about a potential acquisition of 21st Century Fox's assets, revealed the potential value to be created by launching and bundling Disney branded streaming services.
"The goal we analyzed through 21st Century Fox was to launch a service directly to the consumer," he said. Disney's boss said the 21st Century Fox deal, beyond buying content and franchises from existing movies and TV channels, crucially included hiring key talent to create content which would guide its streaming strategy. "We have gained tremendous talent with a lot of experience to help us implement this strategy, which would have been more difficult to do without them," Iger said.
He recalled recalling the assets of the 21st Century Fox that his studio had intended to acquire on a whiteboard in a conference room in January 2018, placing them alongside the various Disney's assets. "I had to go to Wikipedia to understand everything we had, it's a long list, I have a good memory, but it's not very good," joked the executive. .
Over time, Iger created a post-merger management table in which Kevin Mayer, as president of Direct-to-Consumer and International, would oversee Disney's multi-platform streaming services. And that would free senior executives of content, such as Peter Rice, who now runs Walt Disney Television, and Alan Bergman and Alan Horn, who share the title of co-chair at Disney Studios, without worrying about the distribution and sale of content . "And just doing good things," he explained.
Iger also told investors that Disney + and Hulu would eventually be deployed internationally, but the studio is not in a hurry as it focuses on launching platforms at the national level. "We'll walk before we run, we have a lot to do to launch Disney +," said the Disney chef.
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