Bob Iger’s second stint as Disney’s CEO is all about streaming. And Iger says he already has a secret recipe for success.
Investors may have missed this revelation during Disney’s fiscal Q3 earnings call Wednesday, with much of the attention focused on the Disney+ price hikes and Iger’s comments about cracking down on password sharing.
Iger laid out a series of steps Disney is taking to make its direct-to-consumer, or streaming, business profitable and more successful. They include rethinking how many original titles Disney makes, rolling out new technology to improve the user experience, and ramping up advertising efforts.
The plan also includes unifying Disney's various streaming properties in the U.S. into a "one-app experience." And for that, Iger said, Disney already has a blueprint: “It's a formula for success," Iger said, "that we have already proven in international markets with our Star offering on Disney+."
The Star offering?
If you live in the U.S. the name probably doesn’t mean much. Star is Disney’s replacement for Hulu outside the U.S., and it hasn’t often been a topic of conversation in earnings calls.
A television broadcaster in China and India that Disney inherited with its 2019 purchase of 21st Century Fox, Star became a pillar of Disney's streaming empire almost by accident. When then-CEO Bob Chapek decided that Hulu didn’t have a recognizable brand outside the U.S., the company turned to Star, making it the general entertainment section of the Disney+ interface in international markets.
Disney rolled out Star in waves beginning in 2021, and it's now available in more than 70 countries. It hosts content from Disney properties, including ABC, FX and Freeform, as well as some third party content depending on the country.
The marriage of Star and Disney+ embodies Iger's vision of pairing general entertainment content (the television-style programming of Star) with Disney's acclaimed brands and franchises (Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars, and of course, classic Walt Disney fare). For users in most international markets, this was a forced marriage. The addition of Star to Disney+ was not optional, and it came with a price increase. In Europe, users went from paying €6.99 ($7.70) per month to €8.99 ($9.90) per month when Star launched.
Disney doesn’t disclose Star statistics, so it is unclear how many users actually watch content on the service. But it doesn’t seem to have dissuaded users. The company’s international Disney+ offering, which now has 59.7 million users, has never seen a quarter-over-quarter dip in subscribers in the two years since it started reporting the count. Disney's domestic streaming business, on the other hand, has shed subscribers twice.
Disney’s international offering has also had a higher growth rate than its domestic one. In the U.S., Disney+ subscribers are up 7% from the start of 2022. Internationally, the count is up 45%. It is yet to be shown if the launch of Star caused the growth, but it clearly didn’t result in a decline.
The Star integration on Disney+ represents what a lot of industry experts are calling the future—the ability to watch multiple streaming services on one platform. According to a 2022 Nielsen report, 64% of consumers want more bundling options. Disney recently announced it will create a single app offering both Disney+ and Hulu for users who purchased the bundle, which looks a lot like what Disney did with Star two years ago.
The Star model could also hint at what Iger has in mind for ESPN, the Disney-owned sports network. During Wednesday's call, Iger said the company was exploring various ways to remake ESPN into a stronger player in the streaming market, with potential distribution and content partnerships. If Iger follows the Star playbook for ESPN, that could mean pairing the network's top-tier sports programming with some type of complimentary content.
Having streaming content in one online location will result in “higher user engagement, lower churn and greater opportunities for advertisers,” Iger said on Wednesday’s call. In other words, it will make Iger's Disney a streaming star.
