Disney+ Hong Kong: from Star Wars to the Star hub, general manager Kerwin Lo on what viewers can expect, Asian content plans and living up to expectations

With Disney+ about to enter Hong Kong’s streaming market, the question is not whether it will be a major player, but whether it will Hulk smash the likes of Netflix, HBO and other entertainment platforms.

Launched in North America and the Netherlands on November 12, 2019, the service has gradually rolled out across Asia this year and has made an impact wherever it has arrived. After being offered in Japan, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, it officially starts in Hong Kong on November 16 – the same week it begins in Taiwan and South Korea.

“We expect our consumers to respond very favourably and strongly to the launch,” says Kerwin Lo, general manager of The Walt Disney Company in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and head of the Walt Disney studios for Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.

“We have empirical evidence of how well received our content has been over the years – whether it’s theatrical box office, theme park business, the popularity of our TV shows – so we feel that putting all that content in one package using a cutting-edge-technology delivery system, we will unlock the potential to a modern audience. All the successes we’ve seen leads us to believe we can expect that to be replicated in streaming.”

Disney+ launched mere months before Covid-19 took hold and locked down most of the world. The pandemic might have been horrible for most businesses and the global economy, but it did wonders for the burgeoning on-demand, over-the-top subscription streaming sector.

Netflix might have been the biggest beneficiary, but the brand name recognition of the Disney+ line-up significantly swelled its base. It was reported that 10 million subscribers joined just on the first day of operation. As of July, it boasted 116 million subscribers worldwide.

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In comparison, Netflix has over 200 million subscribers, as does Amazon Prime which, as well giving access to Amazon Prime Video, offers a wide range of other media and shopping services. HBO and HBO Max, meanwhile, have a combined 67.5 million global subscribers. Hulu, which is also owned by Disney, has signed up 42.8 million customers.

The major draw of Disney+ is the many behemoth pop-culture brands like Marvel and Star Wars that Disney has assembled under its umbrella, and the company is relying on the hardcore base of each franchise as their foundation.

Instead of genres or languages, the service’s front page is divided into six separate brand banners (or “tiles” as the company officially calls them): Disney, Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars, National Geographic and – in some parts of Asia – there is also Star. Under each tile is a suite of content from its speciality domain.

“It’s a treasure trove of entertainment,” says Lo, who has had a desk in the house the mouse built for 26 years, starting out in Disney’s film distribution arm. “First, the Disney tile is where we have everything from our much loved and cherished award-winning films over the generations.

“It includes the latest animations like Raya and the Last Dragon, which we released in March, to everything that the Disney Channel has housed over the years, as well as our live action films like the new Jungle Cruise with Dwayne Johnson.”

The Pixar section, Lo says, has everything that Pixar Animation Studios released since 1995 when Toy Story came out, while Marvel contains all the content from the Marvel cinematic universe, from the movies to shows like WandaVision.

Star Wars is not just about Star Wars but everything from Lucasfilm, so it will have movies like Indiana Jones too. “This is one place you should watch intently because they will have a lot of fantastic exclusives coming through,” Lo says.

National Geographic contains all the long-running magazine’s documentaries, many of which have won awards. “Highlights include Free Solo, about rock climber Alex Honnold scaling the vertical face of El Capitan in Yosemite, to a new series called Welcome to Earth, with Will Smith, coming in December.”

Unique to Asia is the Star tile, the logo for which should be familiar to anyone in the region who has watched TV in the last 20 years. Disney acquired it in 2019 as part of the US$71.3 billion purchase of Fox’s media assets, which included 21st Century Fox and ABC. Most of that content is available on Hulu in the US, but in Asia it’s under Star.

“As most people from Hong Kong would recognise, the little red star is a brand born by Richard Li and Rupert Murdoch back in the ’90s,” Lo says. “Now we use this to house all general entertainment content and shows that came with the Fox network, from Grey’s Anatomy to The Simpsons, 24 and The X-Files. All of that will be housed under Star.”

Among the anticipated new products due out soon after the Hong Kong launch of Disney+ is Marvel’s Hawkeye, with Jeremy Renner returning. The show delves into the character as a family man and his adventures, with a new protégé played by Hailee Steinfeld.

Just after Christmas, The Book of Boba Fett from the Star Wars franchise will drop. Also around the holidays, Pixar will release a new animation, Encanto, from the director of Zootopia and featuring music from Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda.

“Yeah, there’s a lot coming,” Lo says. “It’s endless and relentless. I am excited.”

While Disney+ is banking on faithful followers of Avengers superheroes, Jedi knights and animated Pixar characters for its core audience, competitor Netflix is winning new converts with daring new shows. They’ve tapped into new creative Asian terrains in particular, exemplified by its Korean mega-hit Squid Game.

Lo confirms Disney+ also wants to make inroads with Asia-Pacific content, but can’t reveal too much detail yet. Disney did, though, recently hire Hong Kong-based Jessica Kam-Engle away from HBO to be its Asian content development head.

“We certainly do have very wide-ranging plans to work with Asian filmmakers, storytellers, creative types across different regions and markets,” Lo says. “If there’s anything that our new CEO, Bob Chapek, is really, really motivating everyone to do is have our storytelling reflect the world we live in. So that would include diverse voices and stories from different cultures.

“If you’re paying attention, we recently just launched Star Wars: Visions, which is a collection of short films, working with Japanese anime houses to tell nine Star Wars short stories.

“I haven’t even seen them all but they’re very good. As you know, George Lucas was very influenced by director Akira Kurosawa when he created Star Wars, so it’s like coming full circle.”

However, it’s hard to imagine Disney ever greenlighting something as bloody and violent as Squid Game, or shows with overtly sexual themes as Bridgerton. That’s where the Star brand comes in, which will host titles with more mature content such as The Walking Dead and Die Hard.

Still, critics have noted that certain programmes offered by the service have been modified – some brief nudity in the 1984 film Splash was digitally blurred, for example – while profanities in other movies were simply removed. There have also been cuts, and entire programme episodes removed, for scenes with “racially insensitive” portrayals, including a scene from the original animated version of Dumbo.

Lo says there has been no directive to present only family entertainment on the platform or to censor any content too provocative.

“We look at it as entertainment for everyone,” he says. “But we will curate our content as best as we can to meet the demand of our consumers. The Disney-appropriate titles will be under the Disney tile, and you’ll find slightly more appropriately mature content like Grey’s Anatomy and Lost under the Star tile. As a colleague of mine said, this is not Disney, it’s Disney+. So, there’s more to us.”

The challenge, Lo admits, is how they live up to expectations.

“We’ve had generations of consumers who grew up loving the content across these different brands. They have very high expectations on how it might continue to proliferate. Our biggest challenge has always been, and always will be: how do we live up to those lofty promises? We just have to make sure we not only meet those standards but exceed them.”

Disney+ will be available in Hong Kong for a monthly fee of HK$73 or an annual fee of HK$738 from November 16, 2021

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