BURBANK, CA – The Walt Disney Company’s new direct-to-consumer streaming service will be called Disney+ and is scheduled to launch late in 2019, chairman and CEO Bob Iger confirmed Monday.
Sources have told Cartt.ca that the company aims to launch the SVoD service in Canada on the same day as in the U.S. We've asked Disney for confirmation but have not yet heard back from them.
Besides streaming its library titles, Disney+ is also investing in original content, including a live-action prequel to the Star Wars film Rogue One, a series from Marvel Studios based on Loki, the god of mischief, plus new stories set in the worlds of Disney Pixar’s Monsters Inc. and Disney Channel’s High School Musical.
During the company's fourth quarter conference call with financial analysts, CEO Bob Iger said direct-to-consumer platforms continue to be a top priority, fuelled by the fact that over a million Americans have signed up for an ESPN+ subscription (its OTT sports app) in just six months.
While there had been speculation this year that Disney's new OTT service would somehow merge with Hulu, another dominant American streamer of which Disney will own 60% once its 21st Century Fox acquisition is complete, Iger said on the call he wants to see Hulu get bigger and better.
"We think that given the success of Hulu so far in terms of subscriber growth and the relative brand strength and other things too like demographics, we think there's an opportunity to increase investment in Hulu notably on the programming side… I also think Hulu is attractive in many ways. If you look at the demographics of the people consuming off-network shows on Hulu, and you look at the demographics of the same shows on the network, you'll see what could be, at times, 20 years younger audience at Hulu… That's clearly attractive to advertisers.
"We've got an opportunity to invest more in Hulu, to grow its subs. I also think there's some pricing elasticity too, but notably on the multi-channel front. And we'll talk about sometime in the near future. And I think there's an opportunity to… increase our pricing there – and it will focus mostly on what I'll call general entertainment programming. And we'll leave the more family-oriented programming to the Disney+ app," he said.
When asked if Hulu will soon go global, Iger wasn't firm on that but did say during the call "we also plan working with Hulu to introduce Hulu in more international markets as well," but later clarified that would be a discussion which will have to happen first with minority partners Comcast and AT&T/TimeWarner.
Disney+ will offer content from its various brands, including Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic, according to its new website.
