A leading media company could be testing out a strategy to appeal to a younger generation of content consumers and it involves one of the biggest movie franchises of all time.
What Happened: The Star Wars franchise continues to evolve with more movies and television shows coming to theaters and on the Disney+ streaming platform. This is all part of a strategy from Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) to grow the franchise across segments such as streaming, movies, consumer products and licensing.
Disney released a new series called “Tales of the Jedi” on Disney+ on Wednesday, Oct. 26. The series comes from Dave Filoni, who previously worked on “The Mandalorian,” one of the biggest success stories for Disney+.
While theatrical releases from the Star Wars franchise often run two hours and 20 minutes or longer, the new series is focusing on short-form content.
Six total episodes were released on Oct. 26, centered on storylines about Ahsoka Tano and Count Dooku. The episodes have run times of 19 minutes, 16 minutes, 16 minutes, 18 minutes, 13 minutes and 17 minutes, respectively.
Related Link: Disney Raises Streaming Prices Again Following Netflix
Why It’s Important: As Disney looks to leverage its strong franchise library with titles in the Star Wars and Marvel franchises, it has created content geared towards kids and put a focus on shorter times instead of half-hour or hour-long episodes.
The comparison to Quibi shouldn’t be lost for investors and consumers. Launched in 2020 by industry veterans Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, Quibi was a multi-billion dollar bet on creating 10-minute episodes and movies for consumers to easily digest in a mobile-first world.
The venture didn’t work out and Quibi was eventually sold to Roku Inc (NASDAQ:ROKU) in January 2021 for hundreds of millions of dollars.
So the big question is whether Disney will see its new short-form content go the way of Quibi or prove successful in the world of TikTok and a younger generation having a shorter attention span for consumable content.
Technology platforms such as Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) and Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)(NASDAQ:GOOGL)-owned YouTube have put an emphasis on creating short-form content videos for consumers in similar fashion to TikTok.
It’s likely that Quibi may have been ahead of its time or wasn’t able to succeed without a built-in brand or library of franchises.
With 152.1 million subscribers on Disney+ and blockbuster franchises like Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars, Disney could have the recipe for success.
DIS Price Action: Disney shares were up 0.26% to $104.63 at market close Wednesday.
Read what analysts are saying about Disney here.
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