Disney Goes After Grown-Up International Viewers
by EG
The Disney+ streaming platform has been a huge success, growing its subscriber base to a point that it's a reasonable challenger to Netflix in a very short amount of time. Now Disney+ is going for the win by adding more adult-oriented content to the family-friendly fare it already offers. The new content, under the brand name Star, is rolling out first in markets outside the United States. Read on for details.
When Disney launched streamer Disney+ in November 2019, it leaned on the global recognition of Luke Skywalker, Iron Man, Moana and Buzz Lightyear to great effect. The service attracted 95 million subscribers in a little more than a year. Soon, Disney will find out what happens when characters like Olivia Pope, Betty Suarez and Jack Bauer crash its streaming party.
On Feb. 23, Disney began adding programming that skews more adult to Disney+ in such markets as Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand under the new streaming brand Star. The entertainment giant’s plan to feature Star as a content hub within Disney+ alongside Lucasfilm, Marvel, Pixar and National Geographic is designed to help fuel sign-ups overseas, but it also stands to create confusion for the family-friendly Disney+ brand.
“Everybody knows Marvel and Star Wars and Pixar, but Star is kind of a nebulous general entertainment thing, so it’s much harder to have an obvious value proposition for people,” says Cowen media and entertainment analyst Doug Creutz. “I don’t know that having Star will incentivize somebody who wouldn’t have bought Disney+ by itself to then go buy Disney+.”
Adding to the challenge, Disney plans to increase the price of Disney+ to 8.99 in Europe and to 7.99 pounds in the U.K. (both equate to about $11) regardless of whether a subscriber intends to watch the new Star programming, which will come from Disney-owned ABC Signature, 20th Television, FX Productions and 20th Century Studios.
By offering Star programming within the Disney+ universe in many markets, Disney is turning the service into a more direct competitor to Netflix, which — with hundreds of new releases each year — promises to have something for everyone. Already, Disney is quickly catching up to Netflix, which required nearly a decade to amass a streaming subscriber base the size of the one Disney+ has today.
Disney also has taken a page from Netflix’s playbook by investing in local content. On Feb. 16, the conglomerate unveiled 10 European original series, spanning the drama, comedy and documentary genres, including a four-part French miniseries about the death of a young student in 1986 and an Italian Mafia series told from a female perspective. Disney+ plans to commission at least 50 European originals by 2024.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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