Tag: Disney

Covid effect: Warner Bros, Disney, Universal TV postpone LA-based shows

MUMBAI: Close to two dozen southern California-based television shows have been put on extended hiatus as Covid2019 infection rates continue to rise in Los Angeles county.

Warner Bros TV has confirmed that series productions such as comedies Mom, B Positive, CBS’ Bob Hearts Abishola, and dramas Shameless (Showtime) and You on Netflix will not resume shooting next week as scheduled. The studio aims to return the week of 11 January but will evaluate as conditions get better.

On a similar note, Universal TV has pressed pause on six comedies — NBC’s Mr. Mayor, Kenan, Good Girls and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, HBO Max’s Hacks, and Netflix’s Never Have I Ever. Universal is also eyeing a 11 January return date for most of its originals.

Both Walt Disney-owned 20th Television and ABC Signature have extended production hiatuses on 16 shows: 911, Lone Star, American Crime Story: Impeachment, American Horror Story, American Housewife, Big Shot, Black-ish, Grey’s Anatomy, Last Man Standing, among several others. Reports stated that none of the Disney shows are expected to return to production floor before 18 January.

Sony Pictures Television has also deferred The Goldbergs and Atypical; both of the shows were slated to resume production next week.

The moves follow the decision Tuesday by CBS Television Studio to extend the holiday production hiatus after Los Angeles county suggested that shooting in the area be suspended amid a surge in Covid2019 cases.

“Although music, TV and film productions are allowed to operate, we ask you to strongly consider pausing work for a few weeks during this catastrophic surge in Covid2019 cases,” public health department representatives wrote in a 24 December email, according to FilmLA. “Identify and delay higher risk activities, and focus on lower-risk work for now, if at all possible.”

According to the reports, Los Angeles county on Wednesday hit a single-day high with 262 Covid2019-related deaths.

January 1, 2021
Disney’s global streaming moves impress investors

MUMBAI: Financial analysts and investors who have been backing the Disney stock are grinning ear to ear following Disney’s 10 December Investor Day announcements. Not only has the mouse house beaten the street’s expectations, it has also whipped its own guidance given to investors as far as its streaming service Disney+ is concerned.

It announced that it had managed to add 13.1 million subscribers between October 2020 and 2 December 2020 to take Disney+’s tally up to 86.8 million subs. The steroidal performance is eye popping as that’s a target it had set for 2024 when it launched in 2019. Yes, the naysayers may say that the gold standard in streaming, Netflix, is about to touch 200 million subs globally. But remember Disney+ reached the 50 million sign up mark within five months of launch; its October 2020 figure was 73.7 million.

Here’s more: the media & entertainment behemoth said that it has revised it 2024 outlook for the number of subs to 230-260 million from the 60-90 million it had set for that year during its last Investor Day in April 2019. Dsisney+Hotstar would account for 30-40 per cent of that; equating to 69 million-78 million and 92 million-104 million subs for the Indian streamer.

Here’s even more: it revealed that it would be upping monthly prices by a single US dollar to $7.99 in the US and to €8.99 in Europe come March 2021.

Sister services such as Hulu and ESPN+ have also performed notably well. The former which was predicted to hit 40-60 million subscribers by FY2024 announced a figure of 38.6 million, while ESPN+ registered 11.5 million against its FY2024 guidance of 8-12 million. It has revised its guidance for FY2024 to 50-60 million for Hulu, with profitability expected to come to it a year earlier than guided last year. Its Hulu bundled offerings are also surpassing previous projections. Its Hulu+Live TV package which is priced at $64.99 with ads, and $70.99 with no ads has notched up four million subs.

Ditto in terms of subscribers for ESPN+; the forecast is that it will cross 20-30 million paid subscribers by end FY2024, and be in the black by 2023.

In all probability, Hulu will stay put as a US domestic service and Disney will extend the Star brand – the cash cow in India which it got when it acquired 21st century Fox from the Murdochs – globally. Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Canada and Singapore will get to see Star as a tile in the Disney+ offering along with Disney, Pixar, National Geographic, Star Wars and Marvel. A brand new streaming service branded Star+ is to be launched across Latin America in June 2021 with an entertainment show and live sports programming lineup. Pricing has been put at $7.50 standalone and $9 when bundled with Disney+.

So enthused has the mouse house’s management been with Disney+’s performance, it has decided to double its projected spend on content from $4.5 billion for 2024 as estimated during its previous investor day in April 2019 to $8-9 billion. It expected its operating losses to peak between 2020-22; but it now predicts that the landmark will be reached in 2021. The profitability horizon has been maintained as FY 2024.

Collectively, the Disney team has set itself a target of 300-350 million subscriptions by FY 2024. Will that take it ahead of Netflix as a whole at that time?

In all probability, yes. With limited headroom for growth from 2022, it’s quite likely that the Reed Hastings-headed streamer will have to work hard to rope in subscribers. Even in India — one of its key growth markets — where it has different subscription slabs in order to lure different income strata in Indian society. Estimates are that Netflix in India has single digit million subscribers. Hedge fund Third Point founder Dan Loeb, who has been constantly cheerleading Disney to invest increasingly in Disney+, should have little reason to complain now that the organisation has pivoted itself around streaming.

The market responded well to Disney’s Investor Day announcement. The stock was trading at a high of $173.96 against the previous day’s close of $154.69.

December 12, 2020
Disney+ captures 1.2 million Nordic homes in 12 months

NEW DELHI: Netflix and Disney+ have been massive hits in the Nordic market, attracting half of more than three million additional streaming subscriptions purchased in the last 12 months, as revealed by a recent Mediavision report. Disney+ alone has been subscribed by close to 1.2 million Nordic households, rendering a household penetration of 10 per cent in the region.

The rapid growth of Disney+ has outperformed all other competitors thus far, and the service has immediately climbed up the Nordic top-5 list – joining Netflix, Viaplay, HBO Nordic and C More.

Local Nordic streaming actors have also grown substantially, with approximately 1.5 million added subscriptions collectively. Each Nordic country has at least one local streaming service. In total, these homegrown services now amass more than 5.6 million subscriptions.

The biggest player is Viaplay, partly explained by it being available in all four Nordic countries. Among the strictly domestic services, TV2 Play in Denmark is the largest, followed by TV2 Sumo in Norway.

Nordic households have also increased their spend on paid streaming. This entails that a paying streaming household now spent approximately 19 euros per month for an average of 2.1 services in fall of 2020. This represents an increase in spending of approximately 10 per cent in one year.

The Nordic market today boasts of 13.6 million subscriptions in total.

December 8, 2020
Lens of regulation is more important: Uday Shankar on OTT platforms

KOLKATA: ‘Will OTT platforms be put on leash?’ is the question being discussed and debated lately, especially after being brought under the ambit of the ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB). It is very much evident that the industry will have some regulatory framework sooner or later but what matters is the regulatory lens, as Star & Disney India president Uday Shankar said at the HT Leadership Summit 2020.

“More than anything else, it is an official decision. I don’t really think it matters. What is important is what will be the lens of regulation. Do we really want to be over-prescriptive or do we want creativity and imagination to have a role in this?" Shankar commented on the matter of government monitoring OTT content.

According to him, the country and consumers have always been way ahead of where the government and regulators believe they are. They are far more open and mature but regulators assume that a huge filter needs to be applied before they consume content.

However, he cautioned that global streaming services must not be insensitive to India’s diversity and culture by offering content simply tailored to grab eyeballs. “I’m not a fan of censorship, I don’t believe in it…the kind of gratuitous content, the amount of sex, abusive language or violence, even though it is part of all our lives…a lot of the times it is just done to pander to attention," he said.

In light of the recent controversies and calls for boycott of certain OTT platforms over shows that purportedly wounded religious sentiments, Shankar averred that foreign players need to take some responsibility for the content they put out, because in the end, India is a sensitive country.

“We should not take the freedom for granted. I think this is what happens when the global services come into the country and disregard everything. They believe that what works in one country can work in every country. This is the backlash,” he noted.

November 28, 2020
US, India to account for around 50% of Disney+ subscriber base in 2025

KOLKATA: With an overwhelming surge of users on over-the-top (OTT) platforms, the global SVoD users are growing significantly. Analyst firm Digital TV Research expects five global platforms to have 678 million paying SVoD subscribers by 2025 based on September results.

While Disney+ has already added over 73 million subscribers, it will add another 112 million subscribers between 2020 and 2025 to reach 194 million. The report adds that Netflix will increase its subscriber base by 73 million.

“Much of Disney+’s initial growth came from the US, mainly due to the attractive bundle of Disney+ with ESPN+ and Hulu. More recently, India’s Disney+ Hotstar subs count has rocketed due to its coverage of IPL cricket. The US and India will account for nearly half of Disney+’ subscriber base by 2025,” Digital TV Research principal analyst Simon Murray says.

According to the report, the streaming giant Netflix will take its revenue up to $37 billion and its rival Disney+ will generate $13 billion in revenue by 2025. The report adds this is a lot lower than Netflix due to lower ARPUs charged in developing markets.

November 16, 2020
The Walt Disney Co’s Q4 gains: IPL boosts Disney+Hotstar subs

KOLKATA: It has been only one year since Disney+ entered the streaming war but the growth has been phenomenal. The streaming service from The Walt Disney Company (Disney) has reached 73.7 million subscribers as of 3 October. Disney+Hotstar has pushed the growth contributing around 25 per cent of the global subscribers which effectively makes for around 19 million subscribers.

“Disney+ ended Q4 with 73.7 million paid subscribers or an increase of over 16 million subscribers versus Q3. Disney+ Hotstar subscriber additions were the largest contributor to this increase, driven by the start of the delayed IPL season. Disney+ Hotstar subscribers now account for a little over a quarter of our global subscriber base. Disney+ overall ARPU this quarter was $4.52. However, excluding Disney+ Hotstar, it was $5.30,” Disney senior executive vice president and chief financial officer Christine McCarthy said in an earnings call.

This means that Disney+Hotstar’s ARPU is at about 78 cents or around Rs 58.

Disney+ entered India coupling with its existing service Hotstar, which the mouse house took over as a part of its Twenty First Century Fox acquisition in April. The rebranded service Disney+Hotstar has signed up around 19 million subscribers in six months which is no small feat, especially in a crowded market like India.

Originally, Disney planned the launch in March with the beginning of IPL 2020. Unfortunately, the Covid2019 crisis forced the company to change the plan. Although it could not exploit the unparalleled popularity of IPL at its launch, it is reaping the benefits now. Moreover, the timing of launch may have also worked in its favour as the lockdown has massively boosted the OTT ecosystem.

Disney+Hotstar contributed around 15 per cent of Disney+ overall subscriber base in Q3. The service can grow its base faster as it has expanded its footprint to Indonesia in September. The company also announced its debut in Singapore on 1 November

The giant media conglomerate is gradually focusing more on direct-to-consumer (DTC) business making up for its late entry in the game. “We are going to continue to ramp up our investment in DTC and we will be heavily tilting the scale from our linear networks over to our DTC business as we see it as a primary catalyst for growth,” Disney CEO Bob Chapek commented.

Disney’s direct-to-consumer and international segment revenue grew 41 per cent to $4.9 billion in Q4, while segment operating loss declined from $751 million to $580 million, as a result of better results at Hulu and ESPN Plus.

“The real bright spot has been our direct-to-consumer business, which is key to the future of our company, and on this anniversary of the launch of Disney+ we’re pleased to report that, as of the end of the fourth quarter, the service had more than 73 million paid subscribers – far surpassing our expectations in just its first year,” Chapek said.

November 13, 2020
Disney restructures general entertainment division

MUMBAI: Disney has unveiled the next leg of its company-wide restructuring, as general entertainment content chairman Peter Rice outlined key changes to the division under his charge.

The move comes a month after Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Chapek announced a strategic reorganization of its media and entertainment businesses.

Rice is ditching the company's long-time legacy structure in order to create centralized groups that will be purely focused on content. It means that departments including marketing, publicity, scheduling and media planning are being consolidated into three distinct groups overseen by Shannon Ryan (Hulu and linear networks), former Twitter head of global creative Jayanta Jenkins (Disney+) and Stephanie Gibbons (FX/FX on Hulu).

Rice has also vastly expanded Disney Channel president Gary Marsh's responsibilities. He will now serve as Disney Branded Television president and chief creative officer. Marsh will now look after all non-theatrical Disney-branded TV content made for tweens, teens and families, live-action, animation and even specials. He will also oversee the Disney+ unscripted content and production teams. Marsh will continue to report to Rice.

National Geographic Content president Courteney Monroe has similarly been given an expanded role. She will add oversight of NatGeo content on Disney+ as well as linear networks. (NatGeo is a one of the centralized channels on Disney+.) Monroe will join Rice's senior leadership team and continue to report to NatGeo partners chairman Gary Knell (who also reports to Rice).

Dana Walden has also been given a new role, she will serve as Walt Disney TV entertainment chairman. Her responsibilities remain largely the same, after the TV stations unit moved over to the Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution Group overseen by the recently promoted Kareem Daniel. It is believed that Walden is expected to announce her own restructuring in the coming weeks. Walden looks after Hulu, ABC, Freeform and Disney Television Studios. The latter division includes 20th Television, ABC Signature and Touchstone Television (formerly Fox 21).

"This is a big change to our legacy television structure which was built around linear networks," Rice said in a memo to staff on Tuesday. "But as we look to the future and how consumers choose to watch their programming, this reorganization is an opportunity for us to fully focus on what we do best, making great programming for viewers wherever they choose to watch their favourite shows,” he added.

The restructuring also includes the consolidation of marketing, publicity and media planning. One agency, led by Hulu and general entertainment content marketing president Shannon Ryan will market DGE content distributed to Hulu and the linear networks, which covers content produced by Disney Television Studios, Hulu Originals, ABC Entertainment, Freeform and ABC News.

Jayanta Jenkins, who last worked with Samsung, is joining as Disney+ and general entertainment content marketing head and will oversee a second internal agency that covers marketing, publicity and media planning for DGE-created content for Disney+ and linear networks including Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD and National Geographic.

Ryan will answer to Walden, while Jenkins will report to Marsh and Monroe.

FX’s marketing and publicity team, led by Stephanie Gibbons, will continue to market all FX programming for Hulu and linear.

November 11, 2020
The Walt Disney Co restructures media & entertainment business globally

MUMBAI: The last two weeks have seen a spate of departures at Disney Star India. It began with the announcement of chairman India and APAC president Uday Shankar exiting the company by end this year. Star Sports boss Gautam Thakar followed quickly, along with another three executives at senior levels. Uday said the entrepreneurial bug had bit him, and Gautam too might go the same way. Disney Star India CEO K. Madhavan quickly found in Sanjog Gupta a replacement for Gautam, but could the departures have something to do with the reorganisation that was announced yesterday by The Walt Disney Co CEO Bob Chapek is a question that needs to be asked.

Chapek said that Disney’s media and entertainment businesses are being restructured.

Under the new organisation, Disney’s world-class creative engines will focus on developing and producing original content for the company’s streaming services, as well as for legacy platforms, while distribution and commercialization activities will be centralized into a single, global media and entertainment distribution organisation.

The new media and entertainment distribution group will be responsible for all monetisation of content—both distribution and ad sales—and will oversee operations ofDisney’s streaming services. It will also have sole P&L accountability for Disney’s media and entertainment businesses.

The creation of content will be managed in three distinct groups—studios, general entertainment, and sports—headed by current leaders Alan F. Horn and Alan Bergman, Peter Rice, and James Pitaro.

The media and entertainment distribution group will be headed by Kareem Daniel, formerly president, consumer products, games and publishing. All five leaders will report directly to CEO Bob Chapek. Disney parks, experiences and products will continue to operate under its existing structure, led by chairman Josh D’Amaro, who continues have Chapek as his immediate boss.

The reshuffling has led to the direct to consumer business division no longer being managed on a combined basis. Rebecca Campbell, who chairs that as well as the international business, will report to Chapek for the latter piece, while having Daniel as her reporting superior for Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN+.

Creative structure of content groups

Under the new structure, Disney’s three content groups will be responsible and accountable for producing and delivering content for theatrical, linear and streaming, with the primary focus being its streaming services:

Studios: Horn and Bergman will serve as chairmen, studios content, which will focus on creating branded theatrical and episodic content based on Disney’s powerhouse franchises for theatrical exhibition, Disney+ and its other streaming services. The group will include the content engines of The Walt Disney Studios, including Disney live action and Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures.

General Entertainment: Rice will serve as chairman, general entertainment content, which will focus on creating general entertainment episodic and original long-form content for Disney’s streaming platforms and its cable and broadcast networks. The group will include the content engines of 20th Television, ABC Signature and Touchstone Television; ABC News; Disney Channels; Freeform; FX; and National Geographic.

Sports: Pitaro will serve as chairman, ESPN and sports content, which will focus on ESPN’s live sports programming, as well as sports news and original and non-scripted sports-related content, for the cable channels, ESPN+, and ABC.

The Distribution group

The media and entertainment distribution group, led by Daniel, will be responsible for the P&L management and all distribution, operations, sales, advertising, data and technology functions worldwide for Disney’s content engines, and it will also manage its streaming services and domestic television networks’ operations The group will work in close collaboration with the content creation teams on programming and marketing.

The new structure is effective immediately, and Disney expects to transition to financial reporting under it in the first quarter of fiscal 2021.

Its virtual investor day is scheduled for 10 December, where it will present further details of its direct-to-consumer strategies.

October 13, 2020
Uday Shankar steps down from Disney Star India

MUMBAI: This is big in the world of media and entertainment. The professional who helmed Star India for the past 11 years and saw it through with its merger with Disney – Uday Shankar- has decided to step down.

The president, The Walt Disney Company APAC and chairman, Star & Disney India, will be leaving effective 31 December 2020, it was announced today by Rebecca Campbell, chairman of Disney’s direct-to-consumer & international segment.

Over the next three months, Shankar will work closely with Campbell to identify his successor to ensure a smooth transition.

“I want to thank Uday for his leadership and dedication to our APAC business. With the successful launch of Disney+ throughout the region, he has helped put The Walt Disney Company in a commanding position in this dynamic and incredibly strategic part of the world. His vast experience and expertise have been invaluable in bringing together a strong, cohesive APAC leadership team to chart a path forward for our streaming businesses in the region and beyond,” said Ms. Campbell. “Uday has been a great friend, colleague and valued counselor to me personally, and I know I speak for all of DTCI when I say he will be greatly missed. At the same time, I understand and respect his desire to make this change. I am extremely grateful that he has agreed to stay on to help ensure a seamless transition.”

Shankar said: “I have always believed in the power of creativity and cutting-edge technology to create a better world and consider myself incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to do so at Star, 21CF and now at The Walt Disney Company. As I look back on this journey, I take pride in having set ambitious goals in my professional career, and achieving all that we set out to do. For some time now, I have been contemplating the question of how I give back to the country, community and the industry that have given me so much. I think the best way to express my gratitude to all of them will be to support and mentor a new generation of entrepreneurs as they set out to create transformational solutions that will have a positive impact on countless lives.I intend to partner with global investors and pioneers to achieve this.”

Since February 2019, Shankar has served as president, The Walt Disney Company APAC and chairman, Star & Disney India. Previously, he was president of 21st Century Fox for Asia and the chairman & CEO of Star India. He took over the leadership of Star India in 2007 and transformed not only the Star business into one of the largest and most successful media companies in Asia but has also played a significant role in revolutionizing the media landscape of the region with a great team, audacious strategy and meticulous execution. A believer in the power of local execution, Shankar led Star’s aggressive foray into regional and local language programming, transforming Star into a content powerhouse which now broadcasts more than 30,000 hours of content every year. He also consolidated Star’s sports broadcasting operations through 21st Century Fox’s acquisition of its joint venture with ESPN. Today, Star Sports is India’s largest sports broadcaster and is fundamentally redefining India’s sports ecosystem. In a notoriously single sport country, Star has launched multiple domestic sports leagues like those in Kabaddi and Football and has pioneered the agenda of creating a thriving multi-sports culture.Under Shankar’s leadership, Star has also made strides in disrupting the country’s digital landscape with the launch of Hotstar, which is now India’s largest over-the-top (OTT) platform for professionally produced content and has gone global in its footprint with offerings in the US, Canada and the UK.

He previously served as CEO and editor of Star News, which was the first 24-hour news channel in India. He was also the editor and news director at TV Today Group, where he spearheaded the launch of Aaj Tak, a leading Hindi news channel, in 2000 and Headlines Today, a leading English news channel, in 2003. Over the past decade, Shankar has played a key role in shaping the media and entertainment sector in India, bringing reforms for the industry and its consumers. A former president of Indian Broadcasting Federation (IBF), he is currently senior vice president of FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry) and in line to take over as its next president.

October 8, 2020
IBF appointes Star & Disney India’s K. Madhavan as president

Mumbai: At the twenty-first annual general meeting (AGM) of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), held on 25 September 2020, the Board has elected Star & Disney India’s MD K. Madhavan as the foundation’s new president.

Madhavan will succeed NP Singh, India MD & CEO, Sony Pictures Networks, who held the position for two years.

The IBF Board has also elected the following office bearers of IBF:-

Vice President-IBF

· India TV chairman Rajat Sharma

· Turner International MD (south Asia) Siddharth Jain

· Viacom18 MD Rahul Joshi

Treasurer-IBF

· Prasar Bharti CEO Shashi S Vempati

K. Madhavan said, “It is my honor to lead IBF at a time when the Indian broadcasting sector is going through a tumultuous time, battling the pandemic and instability in the regulatory space. IBF has played an instrumental role in advocating the interests of the sector, and my predecessors have contributed immensely in evolving the foundation’s stature and purpose. I take on this role with a great sense of responsibility and commitment to champion the cause of the broadcasting sector.”

N.P Singh said, “I am pleased that someone of the caliber of K. Madhavan is taking over the reins and will lead the foundation. I welcome his selection wholeheartedly. His in-depth knowledge and insights into the sector will help guide the foundation members through these challenging times. I wish him the best in this new endeavor.”

K. Madhavan has been an active member of IBF since 2012 and is also the chair of CII’s national committee on media and entertainment for the ongoing year. He started his journey with Star in 2009 and took over as the managing director of the network in January 2020.

The other Directors on the IBF Board are as under:

· TV Today chairman Aroon Purie

· Sony Pictures Networks MD & CEO & director Bangla EnEntertainment N P Singh

· Eenadu TV director I Venkat

· Zee Media Corp MD & CEO Punit Goenka

· Zee Entertainment CEO-domestic broadcast business – Punit Misra

· Sony Pictures Networks president (network sales & international business) Rohit Gupta

· The Walt Disney Company Asia Pacific president & chairman, Star and Disney India Uday Shankar

· Discovery Communications India managing director (south Asia) Megha Tata (co-opted director)

· Malayalam Communications Ltd managing director & chief editor John Brittas (co-opted director)

September 25, 2020