Crédito: fuente
In the first ten days of December, Discovery unveiled its streaming service; Warner Bros. said that its entire 2021 slate of films will be released on HBO Max and in theaters at the same time; and Disney announced 100 new projects, with most of them heading straight to streaming services.
Three years from now, we’ll probably still be talking about the content and the consequences.
The resistance to the streaming transformation is significant, but the strategic imperatives of major media companies are more serious. Thus, observers were blown away by the sheer amount of content announcements at Disney’s investor day on Thursday, in much the same way they were stunned by WarnerMedia’s move last week.
«The fact is, we’re only getting started,» Disney’s exec chairman Bob Iger said with a smile at the end of the Disney presentation.
Which raises a question: If you have any connection to the media business, what will your streaming strategy be in a year or three from now? I say three years because Disney is already plotting what it will be releasing for the 2023 holiday season…
«Earth-shaking»
During the Disney investor event, digital media guru Matthew Ball tweeted that «this feels like the true unveiling of Disney+ versus April 2019, tbh» (to be honest).
And Ball told me afterward, «if you’re a competitor, this is earth-shaking.»
That’s because Disney CEO Bob Chapek basically depicted everything up until now as a beta launch. Chapek said «Disney+ has exceeded our wildest expectations» and quadrupled down on the streaming service on Thursday…
Disney’s streaming kingdom
>> More: The service’s monthly fee in the US will be going up by $1 in March to $7.99…
Obi-Wan, She-Hulk and Pinocchio
>> WaPo’s Steven Zeitchik tweeted: «Disney+’s guiding philosophy seems to be ‘let’s take every single property in our catalog and make a prequel, sequel, reboot, new take, feature, limited series, hybrid CG-live-action sci-fi musical comedy melodrama and then let’s see who’s winning the streaming wars, Netflix.'»
Some of the highlights
Unless I stay up until 2am ET, there is no way to encapsulate all the programming news. Let me just flag SIX highlights…
— «Disney unveiled a blitz of new ‘Star Wars’ projects,» NYT’s Brooks Barnes wrote, «including 10 television shows — two of which will be ‘Mandalorian’ spinoffs, another that will follow C-3PO and R2-D2 — and a new theatrical film, ‘Rogue Squadron,’ directed by Patty Jenkins.» Jenkins will be «the first female filmmaker in the 43-year history of the ‘Star Wars’ movie franchise…»
— ABC News also received some shoutouts, with Kelly Campbell saying that «during this election season, nearly four million of Hulu’s SVOD subscribers engaged with election coverage through ABC News Live,» and «we plan to expand our partnership with ABC News to include new original content that will live exclusively on Hulu…»
Kafka’s take
>> Bottom line: The pandemic upends every calculation. I mean, one could argue that WarnerMedia (CNN’s parent) is reaffirming its commitment to theaters by letting all of its 2021 films play on big screens…
«Focus on the customer»
— «Ultimately, it’s the customer that is going to tell us which way this should go.»
— «Life is hard enough. Why don’t we make things as simple as possible for customers?»
— «If everybody just takes a breath and thinks about the customer, it’s not so complicated. It really isn’t. If we can just let everything else fall to the wayside, focus on the customer, we’re going to be sitting on a very big future.»
