Disney looks at new ways to involve young fans, Dana Walden told Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference on Tuesday. Walden, the co-chairman of Disney Entertainment at The Walt Disney Co., told Medianist Ben Swinburne that the company strives to focus children and young families on the social media platforms where they consume a lot of content, before YouTube.
“They are clearly on YouTube,” said Walden. “And we have a useful and great partnership with YouTube. We produce thousands of videos based on our series specifically for YouTube. Disney Junior, I think, has 22 million subscribers. We do that because we know that children like to consume content there. Together with Disney+we want to keep them involved. We want to keep incubating IP on a platform that is important for makers and children. ”
To this end, Walden hinted at “the work we are doing now, although I have nothing specific to announce on the technological side, are functions that will specifically deal with how children are currently dealing with content in a very contemporary way … Holistic looking at that audience of children, we know that we have the stories they want to do with them.”
Apart from that, Walden has named the coming launch of the ESPN-OVE-TOP-Service touched “ESPN flagship” for the first time to contain the ESPN networks outside the cable bundle, in addition to ESPN+. Walden suggested that ESPN boss Jimmy Pitaro would have more information, but added: “I have seen a bit and it is incredibly exciting. The new functions they will put on the market with the launch of flagship, I think they will really blow people away.”
Walden added that sport is also an important element for Disney+, especially now that the service contains an ESPN tile (with programming such as “30 for 30”). “It’s of enormous value for these subscribers,” she said. “It is more than 3000 hours of form programming. And yesterday we actually launched something that I am very enthusiastic about, namely SC+. It is a daily ‘sports center’ show produced by Sportscenter and ESPN. It is going to help us, I think, to include people who are informal sport fans in this conversation that clearly dominates dominating cultures around the world. A daily contact point for Sport on Disney+, a reason to open the app every day. ”
Walden praised the Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ offers and said that the company was’ extremely proud of everything we have achieved in streaming, especially in the past two years. As you know, we lost more than a billion dollars per quarter not so long ago. We are now profitable, growing income and deliver, with visibility in the direction of double digit margins. That includes the recent launch of Hulu on Disney+. “It’s an extraordinary value for subscribers,” she said. “It stimulates engagement … and cause for extreme optimism about our future.”
Walden also sees’ enormous opportunities’ for growth on International Front: ‘It is still a very young platform. We work on our local originals, so that we have content all over the world that is relevant to local subscribers, together with our big global hits. Our company produces and releases when streaming a large number of hits that travel around the world.
“Creating a pipeline of content takes some time, but the great news is that we have found bona fide hits in each of the regions,” she said. “Last year, for example, we released a show called ‘Moving’ in Korea that has registered more than one and a half million subscribers and created a huge event in that market – together with the rest of the content from the United States. We do locally for local, and then locally for regionally, and then worldwide for the whole world. “
Regarding the domestic hits, Walden Walked on the enormous success of FX’s “Shogun”, which has just completed an impressive season 1 series victories at the Emmys, Golden Globes, Critics Choice, Sag Awards and more. And, with the writers’ room that is now wrapped for season 2, it expects very soon news about the next season.
“We like to find it carefully,” she said. “We will not release the season 2 until it is ready.”