A Few Thoughts About OneDisney

A few days ago, Josh D’Amaro spoke about OneDisney.

These comments reflected the first public acknowledgment of its existence.

The new CEO of The Walt Disney Company described OneDisney as a priority.

D’Amaro envisions Disney+ as the centerpiece of this new initiative.

Several analysts pushed Disney’s leader on his intent, and they asked good questions.

D’Amaro provided insights into his plans, and now I have a few thoughts about OneDisney. Will this plan work? If so, what needs to happen for D’Amaro to bring it to life?

About OneDisney

As I discussed the other day, OneDisney centers on the idea of Disney+ as a hub.

D’Amaro wants a centerpiece app where fans can engage with Disney.

Right now, Disney+ shows movies and television shows, plus a few concerts and the like.

Disney has also integrated National Geographic content and aspects of the Disney Bundle.

One day soon, Hulu will cease to exist as a standalone entity. Disney is collapsing this service into Disney+, which is a needed step for OneDisney.

ESPN the app is also accessible via Disney+ as well, a relatively new addition.

Notably, you must pay extra for ESPN and/or Hulu, even if you’re a Disney+ subscriber.

That aspect of the current model is one of my biggest concerns…but I’m getting ahead of myself.

D’Amaro directly addressed the fact that OneDisney is in early stages.

According to him, “our team is really focused on improvements that reduce user friction.”

That’s a polite way of saying that Disney isn’t there yet with its ideas.

The CEO intends to “allow more intuitive discovery for our subscribers and help users decide what to watch and to decide sooner.”

In other words, the Disney+ you know is still in its infancy and will soon look much different.

The tech team is currently working on “a visual homepage, easier navigation, (and) more personalized recommendations.”

That’s just for the content aspect of the conversation. Disney+ will become much more.

D’Amaro wants fans to buy theme park tickets and book cruises from Disney+.

Whether fans want to do that remains to be seen, but this is where we’re all headed.

The Hub and Spokes

Quite randomly, I was watching a YouTube video of Universal Studios Japan today.

As the person entered the park, I couldn’t help but notice the setup. It’s a Main Street clone.

That concept has proven so effective over the years that it’s frequently “borrowed.”

During the early 1950s, Walt Disney had to invent theme park design on the fly.

As he envisioned the park, the concept of a hub-and-spokes structure crystallized in his mind.

When Disneyland opened, the plaza at Main Street, USA, functioned as the hub.

All the connecting lands were the spokes, which is why the park is so easy to traverse.

Josh D’Amaro, a Walt Disney evangelist, envisions Disney+ in the same terms.

The CEO believes that he is plotting a digital path eerily similar to what Uncle Walt had done in the physical world.

Whereas Walt Disney built a Disney hub in Anaheim, D’Amaro will do it on Disney+.

All things Disney will flow through Disney+, D’Amaro’s new digital hub.

The grand scale of this plan should take your breath away, although it’s in the earliest stages.

Right now, Disney’s tech is a mess. It’s a pain point we all know far too well.

However, D’Amaro’s plans call for remaking the infrastructure with all roads flowing to Disney+.

I recently wrote about the potential obstacles I envision with Disney’s new pillars.

The OneDisney strategy with Disney+ as the hub is different in that it’s a good idea. However, this idea will face some challenges that may prove impossible to overcome.

Thinking Out Loud

I often mention the Go.com acquisition as disastrous to Disney.

The company’s executives would largely disagree, as an inexpensive purchase paid dividends.

Disney anchored its digital architecture around Go for many years.

From that perspective, the move was a win…right up until it became a huge loss.

Disney tethered too much to a system that aged far too quickly in the digital era.

History repeated itself in 2019 with Disney+, which leaned heavily on BAMTech.

At the time, Wall Street loved the deal. Within four years, everyone knew better.

Disney execs lamented that BAMTech proved too slow and unwieldy.

Ultimately, Disney+ was held back once more by technological limitations.

You can tell where I’m going with this. Let’s say that Disney+ overhauls its engine in 2026.

I’m confident that Disney can greatly enhance the system…for a few years.

How will everything work in 2040, though? Or 2050?

Disneyland can function with a hub and spokes because cultivated land rarely changes.

A digital realm works differently due to the very nature of technology.

Who knows what digital access will look like in 15-25 years?

If Disney+ becomes the hub, it must remain modern, a herculean task.

Uncontrolled Spokes

During the earnings call, D’Amaro defended Disney’s Fortnite collaboration, stating:

“Disney+ is the hub, but the hub needs spokes. Epic gives us an interactive, gaming native environment to reach audiences that we don’t currently own.”

First, I don’t like that D’Amaro thinks he owns me.

I’d protest louder if I weren’t currently packing for Walt Disney World.

Jokes aside, D’Amaro is describing Fortnite as a spoke to Disney+.

While that statement is defensible in a vacuum, it collapses upon scrutiny.

At Disneyland, the company owns the hub and the spokes.

In the digital realm, Disney doesn’t own many of the spokes as D’Amaro envisions them.

What if Epic Games and/or Fortnite become fodder for negative publicity?

What if Epic Games suddenly became huge and no longer cared about Disney? Or collapsed?

None of these things falls under D’Amaro’s control, which makes Fortnite a rental spoke.

Live sports are another spoke in the wheel, arguably the most important one at that.

However, I may consider ESPN a rental spoke as well for reasons I’ve previously explained.

With the cost of sports licensing well into its hyperinflation era, Disney may get priced out.

Even now, the NFL is ready to open negotiations for its next batch of rights.

Disney’s Sports division netted $652 million last quarter. It’s near a tipping point.

Should the NFL ask for too much, Disney’s choices would be suboptimal.

ESPN could cede the licensing rights to the NFL, or Sports could operate at a loss.

Final Thoughts

As I evaluate D’Amaro’s plans, these are the things that stick out about his premise.

Disney+ as a hub makes sense. Some of the wagon wheel’s spokes strike me as unreliable, though.

A hub and spokes design works perfectly in the real world.

Disneyland proved it, Magic Kingdom reinforced it, and even competitors use it.

In the digital world, the idea strikes me as tenuous at best, at least the way D’Amaro describes it.

So, I’m deciding not to take him quite so literally on this one.

He was speaking with investors and wanted to sound confident and in command.

I’m quite sure he realizes that while Disney+ can and should anchor OneDisney, the rest will remain a work in progress.

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