We’ve all heard a lot about the streaming service market just recently. Big players like Amazon and Netflix have thrown a lot of money into producing more and more content exclusively for these services, and plenty more want a piece of the action. In the UK, the BBC and ITV recently announced they were planning a joint venture into the streaming service market showcasing their vast back catalogues of shows, but so far everyone I’ve spoken to about that service has been underwhelmed by the idea. The idea of a Disney streaming service, however, has unlimited potential and has so many people excited. But could this service become the rival to, and perhaps even killer of, current market leader Netflix?
Let’s begin the ‘Reasons Why’ series by exploring eight reasons why Disney’s streaming service could surpass Netflix.
8. They Have Mickey Mouse Money
There are various reasons why new business ventures succeed or fail in the modern world, but one key reason why ventures with exciting prospects have failed to deliver in the past is simply that they didn’t have the financial backing to break into an overcrowded market. Disney clearly don’t have that problem.
The House of Mouse have been splashing the cash for the last decade since they first shook the foundation of the entertainment world with their $4bn takeover of Marvel Entertainment. It was a wise investment as well given how much they’ve made from the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies alone. Since then they’ve been throwing money at acquiring various other beloved brands, including Lucasfilm for another cool $4bn just a few years after the Marvel takeover, and now of course the massive takeover of 21st Century Fox for a staggering $71bn.
When it comes to launching their own streaming service, there’s no doubt at all that Disney have the money to make it happen. They can invest in the absolute best of everything they need, they can acquire the best developers and engineers to make the infrastructure ground-breaking, and they can fill their streaming service with not just the massive library of Disney products but everything they’ve acquired from the three aforementioned properties as well. More importantly they can afford to spend more in advertising this new streaming service then Netflix could dream about, and they can afford to launch it in more countries than any other service could imagine.
Suffice it to say, there won’t be much that Disney couldn’t afford when it comes to making sure this service hits the ground running.
7. They Can Afford to Take Risks on Content
The problem with breaking into the streaming service market as it currently stands is that while the idea of sitting down and watching hours and hours of old movies and television shows you remember fondly may be appealing, is that really enough to get people giving over their money in a competitive market with rivals producing new and interesting content? Short answer: no.
Throwing money at content providers to guarantee smash hit movies and television shows is by no means a simple thing however. If it were then we wouldn’t hear every year about the array of television shows ending and being cancelled, because if money were all it took to get viewers then these shows on big name networks would run forever. Netflix didn’t succeed just by picking guaranteed smash hits though and, if Disney are to succeed in this market, they can’t afford to do that either. For every show or movie people rave about on Netflix there are just as many which are average or even poor. For every exciting new show that has the office gathering around the watercooler to chat about, there are just as many which begin and end without anyone even caring. If Disney are going to fill their own service with content and grab the attention of the audience – and more importantly keep that attention once they have it – then they need to adopt a similar approach.
It won’t be enough for them to just throw out a couple of shows every few months. Disney will need to take risks on their content if they’re going to find formulas for new shows that people really want to see. They’ll need to hire both big name Hollywood creators and take risks on the unknown creators as well if they’re going to produce enough content to keep viewers happy. This is, of course, great news for creators who could see their shows greenlit with small budgets but a potential global audience, but it’s also great news for us as consumers because, if Disney do things right, who knows what new shows we could all be talking about in the coming years.
6. They Can Appeal to Everyone
The biggest fear that many people have with the idea of the Disney streaming service is that it’ll cater too closely to the Disney brand. If it does, and it produces only family friendly content for kids and adults alike, then they’ll massively limit their audience appeal, and I don’t think Disney are going to be foolish enough to cut out that much of the potential market.
Fox have proven in recent years, with movies like Deadpool, Logan and Deadpool 2, that there is an adult audience for comic book movies. These three movies are not child friendly in the slightest, but each broke a box office record of some kind when it was released. Then there’s the Netflix MCU shows which have proven there’s an audience for more adult-orientated dramas in the comic book realm as well, with Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Punisher being all talked about widely. If Disney were to go all in on the ‘family friendly’ content then they would lose these sections of the market, and simply put I don’t think they’d be short-sighted enough to let that happen.
It isn’t just the Marvel content that Disney could aim at the adult audiences either. ‘Solo’ may not have been as much of a critical or box office smash as LucasFilm and Disney may have hoped it would be, but it did prove one thing: you can have a big budget Star Wars property that’s really entertaining without a lightsabre battle in sight. Then there’s the huge catalogue of Fox properties that Disney now have access to, which include (but are not limited to) Seth McFarlane properties like Family Guy, American Dad and The Orville, horror and sci-fi legendary franchises like Aliens and Predator, more modern franchises like Avatar and Independence Day, and even the Die Hard franchise. With all this in their archives, they have content for every type of consumer. Would they really limit themselves to just the family-friendly Disney brand?
5. They Can Expand Their Marvel Franchises
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a juggernaut (no pun intended) which seemingly has no end in sight. With the launch of the streaming service, Disney have the opportunity to take this juggernaut and expand it beyond just the movies, opening the door to all kinds of new and exciting possibilities, from streaming-service exclusive movies to short films to, of course, television shows.
There has already been talk about combinations like Winter Solider & Falcon and Scarlet Witch & Vision getting their own television deals with the streaming service, expanding on the stories we already know from these characters – who let’s be honest are just bit-part players in the movies – and delving into more of their back stories and adventures. These aren’t the only Marvel brands that Disney could turn into behemoths for their streaming service, however. Sticking with the MCU for a moment, Disney could look to expand on the short-films that Marvel have included on their DVD and Blu-Rays in the past, producing more of these and more often, expanding on existing movies and adding more content with minor characters from the films. While the twist with the Mandarin in Iron Man 3 may not have been universally loved by comic book fans, the short film which expanded on Trevor Slattery on the DVDs teased so much and appeased a lot of the fans concerns with Iron Man 3. The same could be done for various other films, and while these short films wouldn’t get viewers paying money just for them, they would be a fantastic way to add satisfaction to those who’ve already subscribed.
They could also relaunch the Netflix MCU shows on their own service, giving viewers the sequels to these shows that many have asked for. A fourth season of Daredevil, or third season of Jessica Jones, Punisher, Iron Fist or Luke Cage, would have a built-in audience already, while other MCU related shows like Agent of SHIELD, Agent Carter and even Runaways and Cloak and Dagger could find new homes on the streaming service and bring their audiences with them. Then there’s the host of other possibilities to expand on the MCU movies, after all in the comics it isn’t just Tony Stark who’s called himself Iron Man, nor the son of Odin who has wielded Mjolnir, and that’s just two cinematic characters who could find new interpretations on a streaming service.
4. They Can Expand the Marvel Library
Sticking with their Marvel properties for a moment, since the moment that Disney announced they were buying Fox there has been so much talk about the X-Men and Fantastic Four becoming potential blockbuster movie franchises for Disney moving forward, but what about bringing these not to cinemas but to the streaming service?
While the X-Men could be rebooted and introduced into the MCU to give new life and new dimensions to future movies – and give us the potential dream crossovers like Avengers Vs. X-Men that could never happen before – what if Disney looked at the streaming service as a way to give new life to these franchises? Do we really want to see the cinema market crowded with multiple X-Men related movies every year alongside the current MCU brands and, of course, Warner Bros DC universe films? There surely will be a limit to how many movies the average cinemagoer will pay to see in one calendar year, but with the streaming service as an outlet it gives Disney and Marvel a chance to showcase these newly acquired characters in different ways.
Deadpool 2 had a team of ‘X-Force’, and by the end of the movie it seemed like a new team may have been formed to use that name moving forward, but what about the various other X-Men related teams and properties? X-Factor, a government sponsored team of mutants, may not make too much of a splash on the movie market but could make for a thrilling television series. New Mutants or Generation X would let the streaming service bring life to a whole new set of younger mutant characters. But my favourite idea for expanding on the Marvel library on the smaller screen would be to bring the Fantastic Four to life not in the movies but on the streaming service. There it would let the dynamic between the characters and their struggles not just as a group of superheroes but as a family come to life in a slower format, giving more depth to each character as they’re allowed to grow over a longer period than simply trying to fit this theme in alongside the action of a two and a half hour film.
3. They Have So Many Other Properties
While I’ve just spoken about the potential to expand the MCU and other Marvel properties into the streaming service, what about the other host of properties I spoke about earlier on? The biggest and most obvious expansion would be Star Wars, with potential for new movies and television shows that keep away from the Skywalker-orientated plots of the movies, but it doesn’t end there.
Expanding on the characters from ‘Solo’ – besides the title character and Chewbacca, who we already know everything about – could make for a very interesting idea, and with Game of Thrones soon to be ending, a cast led by Emilia Clark, featuring Ray Park and exploring more of Crimson Dawn and the bounty hunters and smugglers of the Star Wars universe could make for a great expansion of the Star Wars franchise. Expanding on Star Wars and breathing new life into the franchise away from lightsabres and Jedi could be possible, with television shows of the past like Firefly showing there is a market for ‘space cowboy’ style adventures that Disney could tap into and showcase as a major part of the streaming service.
The acquisition of Fox adds so many more elements to this as well, with the possibility of expanding on the alien universe beyond the movies we’ve seen so far. With the right combination of directors and writing staff they could breathe new life into the Alien franchise, bringing to the small screen a universe filled with planet colonies battling the Alien menace, or even looking to create their own Star Trek inspired television series set within the Alien universe featuring a core cast traveling between civilised worlds and battling more than just the threat of the Aliens from the movies but more set within that same universe. With the potential to expand upon the ‘Engineers’, and with the possibility of featuring cameos from actors like Lance Henriksen and Michael Fassbender as different versions of the androids they brought to life in the movies, the streaming service could appeal to a whole new adult audience while also giving new life to a fantastic intellectual property that hasn’t been treated all that well by the big screen.
2. They Can Market More Than Television and Movies
When you think of Disney, what do you think about? Animated classic movies, ground-breaking computer-animated films that appeal to adults and children alike, the takeover of some of the best-known franchises in the world, but something more: theme parks and merchandise!
You can’t think Disney without thinking about Disneyland or Disneyworld. You can’t think Disney without thinking about the Disney Store, where you can get products ranging from the latest Marvel and Star Wars toys, to cuddly toys based on your favourite films, to costumes so you can dress up like your favourite characters. While consumers may not want their shows and movies filled to the brim with advertising for car insurance, vacuum cleaners or the fact that you can get £10 credit if you sign up for a gambling website, one thing I have absolutely no doubt customers wouldn’t complain about is advertising for related products they can buy, and Disney themselves could benefit massively from advertising these products straight to their audience.
When you tune into a classic Disney film, I doubt anyone would mind sitting through a reminder that the Disney Store has your favourite character from that film available as a cuddly toy. I definitely don’t think consumers would mind if they’re then told that, because they subscribe to the Disney Streaming Service, they’re entitled to money off that product at the local Disney Store. By doing this Disney could bring together two of its revenue streams and boost sales of merchandise, which would undoubtedly help pay for all the extra costs they’d encounter running a service like this, and if they advertised direct to their consumers then maybe the extra money they made from this could not only help keep costs of their streaming service low enough to be affordable to everyone, but it could also help boost the income from the service if they were to take a hit in another area, like, for example, if they were to do something game-changing with this service, such as…
1. They Could Change Cinema Forever
Piracy has been a major problem for the movie industry for a long time, but the problems with the industry go deeper than just that. The current system is set up thus that movies are released to the cinema first, then eventually come to Blu-Ray and ‘pay per view’ style services, and finally are released to streaming services. However, Disney have the pull to change that forever.
Being one of the biggest players in the market, if Disney want to make their service unlike anything else then they have the pull and the resources to do that. It wouldn’t take much to completely reinvigorate the movie and television industries, and if Disney put someone with a vision in charge of the long-term planning for their service, they could do exactly that. What if Disney were to break the pattern that I talked about above? What if Disney were to offer brand-new movies that are freshly out in the cinema on their streaming service just months or even weeks after they’re released in theatres? What if they skip the theatres all together and launch exclusively to their streaming service? They wouldn’t even need to pay money to advertise the service if they did something like this, the media would give them free publicity simply for breaking the existing mould.
Imagine a huge, big budget summer blockbuster hits movie theatres in early May and is available on the streaming service in August or September. It might hurt the numbers that the movie takes in theatres admittedly, but the numbers for the streaming service would skyrocket. Disney are arguably the only company in the world powerful enough to make this happen. It may have the slight downside of them seeing dollar signs and charging a more ‘premium’ price for access to this brand new content, but if they were to include it as part of the streaming service then they would forever change the way that content is consumed, along with changing the way the DVD and Blu-Ray markets function. Disney would instead have direct access to their audience, without the need to go via third parties all of whom want a piece of the action, and they could rake in the money as a result.
Would they want to break the existing mould in that way? That would be up to the long-term vision of the company, but if they wanted to guarantee themselves as the biggest streaming service in the world, while simultaneously cutting down on the piracy of their products, then they have the platform to do exactly that.
Will Any of This Happen?
Personally, I doubt that Disney have the vision to change the models of the markets they have made so much money from, and I can see them simply trying to fit within the existing world alongside companies like Netflix and Amazon. However, there is no company in the world quite like Disney and no company in the world with the money-making potential of Disney, so if they’d rather innovate than simply react to the latest innovations of others, and they’d rather get ahead of companies like Netflix rather than reacting to whatever Netflix do to compete with them, then they have the resources to do that.
I also have no doubt that the streaming service will be a success no matter what route they take with it, but I’d much prefer that they look at this as an opportunity to change the way their customers consume content just as Netflix did before them rather than trying to hold onto the old revenue models as long as they can. Hopefully they’ll launch their service worldwide to adults and children alike at an affordable price that we can all get excited about, but we’ve all seen how difficult it can be for even a market giant like Netflix to get the rights to show certain things in different countries, so who knows what may happen when Disney finally get their service up and running.
Until they do, let’s just hope that the future is bright.