Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed the official name for the company’s upcoming, direct-to-consumer streaming video service, Disney Play, and confirmed a few more details about the service, the content it will offer, and how it will compare to Netflix, Hulu, and other streaming video services.
Almost a year after Disney announced plans to create its own streaming video service, that project now has a name. The project created to challenge Netflix, Hulu, and their ilk will be called Disney Play.
Disney’s chairman and CEO Bob Iger revealed the name of the service while discussing how the company plans to compete with industry leader Netflix and the various other direct-to-consumer streaming video platforms currently in use and in development. Iger indicated that Disney Play is the company’s “biggest priority” in 2019 — which says a lot, given the scope of Disney’s influence and content.
In a wide-ranging report published by Variety, Iger also confirmed a few details about Disney Play and what it will likely feature when it launches in 2019 and beyond.
First and foremost among the content will be a variety of projects tied to Disney’s Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, and Disney-specific properties. The previously announced, live-action Star Wars series being developed by Jon Favreau is among those projects, as well as several other, still-unofficial projects in development from various Disney brands.
Disney’s upcoming movie slate is also expected to factor into the company’s plans for the streaming platform, with Captain Marvel, Frozen 2, Toy Story 4, Star Wars: Episode IX, and Favreau’s live-action remake of The Lion King all premiering next year and likely destined for exclusive streaming availability on Disney Play.
Iger also confirmed Disney’s plans to undercut Netflix when it comes to pricing for its streaming service, with plans to offer Disney Play at less than the monthly $8 to $14 fee charged by Netflix. This decision, he acknowledged, has as much to do with making the service more appealing financially as it does with accurately valuing the amount of content available when it debuts.
When it comes to Disney Play’s initial library, Disney won’t attempt to match Netflix in sheer volume of content, he explained. Being able to draw from Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, and Disney brands gives the service an exclusivity that other platforms lack, he argued, as long as the content is kept to the high standard fans expect.
“We have the luxury of programming this product with programs from those brands or derived from those brands, which obviously creates a demand and gives us the ability to not necessarily be in the volume game, but to be in the quality game,” Iger said.
One thing Disney Play won’t be doing is pulling original Marvel, Star Wars, or Disney content off competing platforms, he added. This should come as good news to fans of live-action Marvel series on Netflix, for example, as well as recent series such as The Gifted and Runaways.
With Disney in the final stages of gaining a majority stake in Hulu (thanks to its purchase of 20th Century Fox assets), there are more than a few big questions that remain unanswered about Disney Play and the company’s plans in the streaming video realm, but the picture does seem a bit clearer now.
