Disney Headlines for August 24th, 2022
This week: Bob Chapek once again splits from Bob Iger’s plans, Disney announces new D-23 Legends, and Splash Mountain gets engaged at the park.
You Can Blame Chapek for This Price Increase
The ongoing struggle in Disney’s c-suite again came into public view last week.
Some business writers, possibly at the behest of Bob Iger loyalists, reviewed previous public comments about the Disney+ service.
Disney+ is back in the news due to its staggering success. The not-quite three-year-old streaming service recently crossed 150 million subscribers.
For comparison, Peacock, the NBC-centered streaming service, has…13 million. When you’re beating the competition by a factor of 12, you’re doing something right.
However, Wall Street and consumers are at odds over one of the new Disney+ announcements.
When Bob Iger planned the service, you may recall that he added a transparent road map for how Disney+ would work.
The streamer would start at an extremely low price and then increase its monthly subscription fee by a dollar every 12-18 months.
Iger clearly identified that the price would go up by a modest amount over time, never all at once.
Well, current CEO Bob Chapek has seemingly made it his mission in life to go out on his own path, ignoring Iger when necessary.
Honestly, I’ve got no problem with that in general. Iger’s plans came from before the pandemic. Much in the industry has changed since then.
Still, Chapek’s latest announcement shows how far he has branched away from Iger’s road map.
The Price Hike and Chapek’s Plan
Later this year, Disney+ will increase its prices to $10.99 for the ad-free tier, and that’s the other part of this conversation.
Iger never intended ads, at least not that he said publicly. Conversely, Chapek will lean hard into this strategy.
Disney+ will add an advertising tier at the old price of $7.99. So, Chapek has ignored Iger on both phases of his Disney+ road map from 2019.
Why has Chapek done so? The Disney+ revenue per customer remains relatively low at $6.27 per month in North America…but only $1.20 for Hotstar customers in India.
While Disney+ has exploded in terms of customer growth, its earnings per subscriber have actually dropped.
At the start of 2020, the first quarter for Disney+, Disney cleared $5.56 per customer.
In other words, whenever someone paid for Disney+, Disney gained $5.56 per month.
During the most recent fiscal quarter, Disney+ only earned Disney $4.35 per customer…and that’s after a fairly recent $1 price increase.
Disney simply isn’t making enough money per paying customer. We know this because Disney’s streaming services lost $1.1 billion for the quarter.
For comparison, Netflix nets $15.95 per month per customer. So while Wall Street turned bearish on Netflix, its revenue numbers were outstanding.
Chapek watched his primary streaming competitor clean up its balance sheet, and he grew jealous.
So, Disney’s CEO once again threw out the existing Bob Iger playbook and went off on his own.
Judging by the commotion it has caused in the trades, I suspect that Iger loyalists are NOT happy about the move.
Will the strategy work? Stay tuned…
A New Class of Legends
I always love reporting on things like this because it’s such a happy piece of news.
Disney has announced its new class of Disney Legends. This group will accept their achievements during the upcoming D23 Expo.
I’m happy to report that this is one of the best classes ever, at least from the celebrity perspective.
The headliner is Chadwick Boseman, whom Disney will laud posthumously for his work as Black Panther in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
You shouldn’t expect a dry eye in the building when Boseman’s family accepts on his behalf.
Meanwhile, the Frozen crew will complete a decade of dominance with a group hug as Disney Legends.
The primary voice cast for the franchise will all accept this honorific. We’re talking about Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Josh Gad, and Jonathan Groff.
Hopefully, they all join together in a celebratory song during or after the awards ceremony.
Disney will also honor two of its most iconic ABC television stars. Ellen Pompeo of Grey’s Anatomy and Tracee Ellis-Ross of Black-ish are long overdue for such recognition.
Combined, their shows have aired for 25 years of television, not counting the Black-ish spinoff.
I would especially highlight the significance of Ellis-Ross, as she is the daughter of music legend Diana Ross, something that doesn’t get publicized much.
Ellis-Ross has chosen to let her work stand on its own, even though she can sing like this:
Fittingly, Anthony Anderson of Black-ish and Patrick Dempsey join their longtime counterparts as Disney Legends this year, too.
Perhaps the most overdue selection goes to longtime Disney producer Don Hahn, whom MickeyBlog had the privilege of interviewing in 2020.
The other new Disney Legends are Rob’t Coltrin, Robert Price “Bob” Foster, Doris Hardoon, and Chris Montan.
You can and should read all about them here.
Miscellaneous Disney Headlines
We’ve got some other Headlines you will enjoy. For starters, one of the NBA’s Lopez twins recently got engaged at Disney.
Milwaukee Bucks center Brook Lopez, the man the league calls Splash Mountain due to his shooting prowess and love of Disney, just proposed.
As anyone who follows Lopez would expect, the big man popped the question at Walt Disney World.
Lopez asked his longtime girlfriend, Hailee Strickland, at their favorite spot at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
The seven-foot superfan was one of the earliest buyers at Walt Disney World’s prestigious Golden Oak neighborhood.
In case you’re wondering, it wasn’t Brook who unknowingly purchased the stolen Buzzy from EPCOT. Instead, that was his twin, Robin.
The Lopez Twins love Disney the way that you and I do.
Another brewing headline involves Avatar, which you won’t find on Disney+ right now.
Disney has apparently pulled it to build intrigue for the film’s impending theatrical re-release. I hope that Disney doesn’t make a habit of removing content like HBO Max.
Speaking of old Disney content, former employee Don Bluth made quite the name for himself when he left the friendly confines and went out on his own.
In this enlightening interview, the visionary responsible for The Secret of NIMH and All Dogs Go to Heaven looks back at his career and bold choice.
Also, here’s a Yahoo! link in case the Bluth interview goes behind a paywall.
Bluth’s animation work remains popular to this day, but for some folks like me, he’ll always be the artist behind Dragon’s Lair.