The company, which added 7.9 million new subscribers to Disney+ in the March quarter (Q1), taking the total to 137.9 million, said during the earnings call late on Wednesday that it has about 500 shows in the pipeline for local content outside of the US or English speaking.
"When you look at that 500, I'll give you some broad breakdowns. In the Asia-Pacific region, including Southeast Asia, of that 500, 140 is in that region. In EMEA, it's 150. In India, it's 100. And in Latin America, it's 200," said Christine McCarthy, Senior Executive Vice President and CFO, The Walt Disney Company.
Disney's video streaming service Disney+Hotstar added 2.6 million paid subscribers for the quarter ended January 1, taking its total base to 45.9 million users.
Although the company did not break down the recent figure of 7.9 million new subscribers, it is obvious that a bulk of new users are coming from India where the OTT consumption has exploded.
"We ended Q2 with more than 205 million total subscriptions after adding 9.2 million in the quarter. That includes 7.9 million Disney+ subscribers, keeping us on track to reach 230 million to 260 million Disney+ subscribers by fiscal 2024," said Bob Chapek, CEO of The Walt Disney Company.
The announcement of 100 new original shows for the Indian market came after Amazon Prime Video said last month that it will launch 40 new titles in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu across original shows, movies and co-productions in the next two years.
"Our world-class creative teams are focused on creating content that will drive subscriber growth in targeted segments and deeper engagement across the platform. This includes leveraging our existing intellectual property. Also, we're intent on creating new franchises," said McCarthy.
As part of a global strategic relationship with Google, Disney will bring its entire global digital video and display business onto Google Ad Manager, which will serve as its core ad technology platform, Philipp Schindler, Chief Business Officer at Google, said in a blog post.
With the partnership, Disney will be able to serve video ads effortlessly on the web, in mobile apps, streaming through connected TVs and for live events, Schindler said.
"Together, we plan to build an advanced video experience for Disney that will transcend devices, platforms, and living rooms to bring the magic of premium video content into people's hearts, minds, and screens -- everywhere," he added.
Schindler said media companies are now reimagining the commercial break as TV is no longer a stationary box anchored to a corner in the living room.
While people now expect the same content they love in the living room on every screen, advertisers want to deliver quality ad experiences that are relevant, seamless and measurable across screens, he added.
In Bill Condon's film, LeFou (Josh Gad) has a crush on Gaston (Luke Evans). Condon told Attitude magazine that LeFou's role is groundbreaking.
Vitaly Milonov, a lawmaker with the governing United Russia party, has urged Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky to view the movie before its March 16 release to check if it complies with the Russian law, and to ban it if he finds "elements of propaganda of homosexuality", the BBC reported on Saturday.
Medinsky responded by saying: "As soon as we get a copy of the film with relevant paperwork for distribution, we will consider it according to the law."
Gad's character has sparked controversy in the US as well. A movie theatre in Alabama announced earlier this week that it would not screen "Beauty and the Beast" because of the inclusion of a gay character.
While speaking to variety.com about being Disney's first openly gay character, Gad said: "As subtle as it is, I do think it's going to be effective and I do think it's important."
Yesterday the TV movie premiered at Walt Disney Studios. Before the screening, Disney Channel president Gary Marsh spoke about the two-and-a-half years of work that went into the project, reports variety.com.
"We have now made 100 Disney Channel original movies, and this is by far the biggest and most ambitious movie we’ve ever attempted,” Marsh said.
The feature follows the malevolent teenage offspring of popular Disney villains from “Sleeping Beauty", “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", “101 Dalmatians” and “Aladdin". It is infused with classic tales and high school drama with original music for Mickey Mouse fans of all ages.
“Because it deals with fairy tales that we all know and love in every generation, the continuance of these stories will bring everyone together,” actress Sofia Carson said about her Disney Channel original movie debut.
The film also features Kristin Chenoweth, Disney Channel veterans Dove Cameron (“Liv and Maddie”) and Cameron Boyce (“Jessie”) along with network newcomer Booboo Stewart.
“Descendants” will beam on July 31 on Disney Channel.
Hotstar has reshaped not just the Indian Premiere League (IPL) viewing experience in the country but of entertainment consumption too, offering over 100,000 hours of drama and movies in 9 languages and coverage of every major global sporting event.
When Uday Shankar, President of The Walt Disney Co Asia-Pacific and Chairman of Star and Disney India, introduced Hotstar to Disney's investors at the Investor Day conference in Burbank, he exuded pride in sharing how the platform had reached peak engagement of 300 million monthly active users, as per latest data.
The game is only going to get bigger with The Walt Disney Co's $71 billion deal with 21st Century Fox, as part of which it now owns Indian TV giant Star.
"First and foremost, we were ahead of the curve. When everybody was dismissing India as a data dark market, we anticipated the impending shift (in data cost, smartphone penetration, and online video consumption) and built Hotstar. We also kept mobile, and in particular, Android at the centre of our strategy, and created an app that was high quality and feature rich but which was also extremely light and nimble," Shankar said.
India, he said, has become a magnet for global media and content companies, and Hotstar, launched in early 2015, was currently in the "pole position".
Despite the market clutter, Hotstar continues to break records by raising the bar in reinventing the sporting experience for millions of Indians, said Varun Narang, Chief Product Officer, Hotstar.
According to the the Ficci-EY Media and Entertainment sector report, digital will overtake film in 2019 and print by 2021 to reach Rs 354 billion in 2021.
There are already over 30 OTT platforms vying for viewers' attention in India, where big players from the film world have stepped into the game via individual apps or content production. Over 1,200 hours of fresh original content was created for OTTs in 2018.
They are competing with world-class content from international biggies Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
Netflix CEO recently said that he finds India a "competitive" and "exciting" market, and efforts have been directed towards amping up the platform's India original slate.
On Monday, they announced a slate of 10 new original films from the country by filmmakers like Karan Johar, Anurag Kashyap, Sudhir Mishra and Sooni Taraporevala, taking the total to 15 new offerings till the end of 2020.
The subscription game is also getting tougher.
Hotstar offers an annual pack for Rs 999 for all sports and American shows and movies. The same plan is available monthly for Rs 299. And then there is Hotstar VIP -- for access to Hotstar Sports, Hotstar Specials and serials before TV -- at Rs 365 annually.
This is much cheaper than the three-tier rates of Netflix, between Rs 500 and Rs 800 monthly.
Amazon's Prime Video is available for Rs 129 per month and Rs 999 for one year.
According to a report in The Information late Wednesday, the Facebook TV chat device will use the same technology currently available in the company's video-calling 'Portal' devices.
The social networking giant is set to launch an updated version of its video chat device 'Portal' later this year.
Andrew Bosworth, Vice President of Facebook's Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) has confirmed that the company has a lot more to unveil acelater this fall" related to Portal.
According to Bosworth, Facebook would also reveal some "new form factors that Portal would be shipped with.
"The new device, code-named Catalina, will also come with physical remote and streaming video services similar to other television boxes like Apple TV," said the report.
According to Cheddar, the device would allow customers to attach a camera to the top of their TV sets which would eliminate the need of a dedicated video chatting device.
Portal was launched in November 2018. While the smaller device was priced at $199, the larger "Portal Plus" was made available for $349 with a 10-inch display and 15-inch display, respectively.
The smart camera-enabled device is also powered by Amazon's voice assistant Alexa and comes with front cameras.
The Facebook Portal has a 10-inch display, while there is a 15-inch display on the Portal+.
The devices offer hands-free voice control and allow users to start a video call simply by saying "Hey Portal".
It uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to recognise people in the frame and follow them as they move throughout a room.
Despite the rift between Disney and Sony, Holland on Saturday made an appearance at Disney's ultimate fan event D23 Expo here to promote his Pixar movie "Onward". He addressed the issue before leaving the stage.
"Listen, it's been a crazy week, but I want you to know, I am grateful from the bottom of my heart," said the "Spider-Man: Far From Home" star, leading to a rapturous applause.
He ended his brief remark by quoting Tony Stark's iconic line from "Avengers: Endgame" -- "And I love you 3,000", signalling that he values his bond with the Marvel superheroes.
Holland's remarks come days after negotiations fell through between Disney, which owns Marvel, and Sony Pictures.
The two studios have been sharing the brand "Spider-Man" across a plethora of films since 2015. As part of the previous agreement, Marvel had also been acting as producer of 2017 and 2019 standalone Sony "Spider-Man" movies. However, Disney and Sony broke the deal as they are "unable" to reach new terms for funding of future movies.
Holland was introduced as Spider-Man in "Captain America: Civil War" in 2016.
Iron Man's popularity was used to bring back the "Spider-Man" franchise. Holland got his first solo movie with "Spider-Man: Homecoming" -- which took the superhero back to school.
He came back as the superhero with his second solo movie "Spider-Man: Far From Home" this year.