Chapek: The New Content Guy?

by Ray Keating

Commentary

DisneyBizJournal.com

August 5, 2020

Will Bob Chapek be more of a content guy than Bob Iger was as CEO of Disney?

I ask this question largely due to a feel I got listening to Chapek on the Disney earnings call yesterday.

Chapek’s excitement about the direct-to-consumer (DTC) future of the company was palpable. In particular, he seemed to get most animated talking about bringing new content to Disney+. As he put it, “new hot tentpole content” is what drives new subscribers.

That was a slightly different emphasis than what we largely heard from Iger since Disney+ was first announced and launched in November. No doubt that Iger recognized and spoke of the importance of new content for Disney+, but Iger also was somewhat cautious about overly emphasizing the importance of new content, usually preferring to reference the vast existing Disney library serving as a foundation for Disney+. 

Of course, Iger was right about the Disney library serving as the foundation for Disney+, but Chapek also is correct in understanding that while the existing library will make, and has made, Disney a top streaming player, that library must be expanded significantly in order to generate the excitement needed to push Disney+ into the same category as Netflix.

Chapek highlighted the arrival this fall of both the second season of The Mandalorian and the new The Right Stuff series to Disney+. He also mentioned that Marvel shows are ready to resume production. And we know that other Marvel and Star Wars projects will be coming to Disney+ as well.

While it might just be a stylistic difference between Chapek and Iger, Chapek came across yesterday as a streaming racehorse, anxiously waiting for this pandemic to pass so that the gates can spring open, unleashing his company’s considerable resources on new content. If that’s the case, Disney+ subscribers, and company shareholders, might have reason to be excited about the Chapek era.

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Ray Keating is the editor, publisher and economist for DisneyBizJournal.com, and author of the Pastor Stephen Grant novels. He can be contacted at  raykeating@keatingreports.com.

Also, get the paperback or Kindle edition of Ray Keating’s new book Behind Enemy Lines: Conservative Communiques from Left-Wing New York.