Josh D’Amaro used his first quarterly earnings call to talk up Disney+’s place as the “centerpiece” of the Magic Kingdom’s digital future.
The Mouse House’s new CEO said an ongoing initiative to make Disney+ to first port of call for Disney customers and fans in most scenarios was already taking shape under his leadership.
In practice, this means “Disney+ becomes the primary relationship between Disney and its fans – the place where everything comes together,” D’Amaro said during the company’s quarterly earnings call. The long-tenured exec stepped up in March from running Disney’s parks business to succeed Bob Iger as CEO.
The Disney+ and Hulu streaming businesses powered Disney’s financial results in the January-to-March period, pushing them ahead of Wall Street analysts’ expectations.
D’Amaro called the parks Disney’s “physical centerpiece,” and predicted Disney+ would “serve as the immersive, interactive digital centerpiece of the company.” Over time, he added, “You’ll see those pieces of the company become more connected.”
Bringing the physical and digital worlds together appeared to be a key question on D’Amaro’s mind during Disney’s second quarter earnings call this morning, with the CEO saying there were “millions of Disney+ users” who aren’t regulars at the parks.
His comments followed a recent Bloomberg story about D’Amaro’s vision to turn Disney+ into a “super app” that would combine TV shows and films with parks ticketing and cruise ship functionalities. In essence, this would bring the Disneyland Resort and Disney Cruise Line Navigator apps into Disney+.
D’Amaro’s remarks on the call, which followed a letter to shareholders from the CEO and CFO Hugh Johnston, didn’t offer a lot of clarity about the look and feel of the next iteration of Disney+. The rethink also goes well beyond a mere app refresh or a distribution deal or two, they noted.
“There is no single initiative that will fully optimize our streaming business on its own,” the letter said. “Rather, we believe the compounding benefits of many incremental improvements over time will increase engagement and improve retention.
“As we look to build Disney+ beyond a premium streaming video service, we are focused on making the
platform more engaging, more personalized, and more central to how fans experience our brands. Recent efforts to revamp the user interface and improve personalization are contributing to an increase
in engagement.”
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