Disney to launch streaming services for films, live sports
Entertainment giant seeks to bypass cable services and Netflix by streaming sports and movies itself, including Toy Story 4 and a sequel to Frozen
With new streaming services in the works, Disney is trying to set itself up for a future that’s largely been framed by Netflix: providing content you want to watch, when you want to watch it.
The Magic Kingdom is launching its own streaming service for its central Disney and Pixar brands and another for live sports. That would allow it to bypass the cable companies it relies on – and Netflix – to charge consumers directly for access to its popular movies and sporting events.
“They’re bringing the future forward. What they talked about were things that looked inevitable, at some point,” says Pivotal Research Group analyst Brian Weiser. But it’s less clear if Disney will be able to make big bucks from it, he adds.
This is important as the decline in cable households and the shift to smaller, cheaper bundles pressures the profitability of Disney’s cable networks. Fewer subscribers and fewer viewers mean less money. In the nine months until the start of July, cable networks’ operating income fell 13 per cent from the year before, to US$4.12 billion.
