iWorld
Disney’s global streaming moves impress investors
MUMBAI: Financial analysts and investors who have been backing the Disney stock are grinning ear to ear following Disney’s 10 December Investor Day announcements. Not only has the mouse house beaten the street’s expectations, it has also whipped its own guidance given to investors as far as its streaming service Disney+ is concerned.
It announced that it had managed to add 13.1 million subscribers between October 2020 and 2 December 2020 to take Disney+’s tally up to 86.8 million subs. The steroidal performance is eye popping as that’s a target it had set for 2024 when it launched in 2019. Yes, the naysayers may say that the gold standard in streaming, Netflix, is about to touch 200 million subs globally. But remember Disney+ reached the 50 million sign up mark within five months of launch; its October 2020 figure was 73.7 million.
Here’s more: the media & entertainment behemoth said that it has revised it 2024 outlook for the number of subs to 230-260 million from the 60-90 million it had set for that year during its last Investor Day in April 2019. Dsisney+Hotstar would account for 30-40 per cent of that; equating to 69 million-78 million and 92 million-104 million subs for the Indian streamer.
Here’s even more: it revealed that it would be upping monthly prices by a single US dollar to $7.99 in the US and to €8.99 in Europe come March 2021.
Sister services such as Hulu and ESPN+ have also performed notably well. The former which was predicted to hit 40-60 million subscribers by FY2024 announced a figure of 38.6 million, while ESPN+ registered 11.5 million against its FY2024 guidance of 8-12 million. It has revised its guidance for FY2024 to 50-60 million for Hulu, with profitability expected to come to it a year earlier than guided last year. Its Hulu bundled offerings are also surpassing previous projections. Its Hulu+Live TV package which is priced at $64.99 with ads, and $70.99 with no ads has notched up four million subs.
Ditto in terms of subscribers for ESPN+; the forecast is that it will cross 20-30 million paid subscribers by end FY2024, and be in the black by 2023.
In all probability, Hulu will stay put as a US domestic service and Disney will extend the Star brand – the cash cow in India which it got when it acquired 21st century Fox from the Murdochs – globally. Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Canada and Singapore will get to see Star as a tile in the Disney+ offering along with Disney, Pixar, National Geographic, Star Wars and Marvel. A brand new streaming service branded Star+ is to be launched across Latin America in June 2021 with an entertainment show and live sports programming lineup. Pricing has been put at $7.50 standalone and $9 when bundled with Disney+.
So enthused has the mouse house’s management been with Disney+’s performance, it has decided to double its projected spend on content from $4.5 billion for 2024 as estimated during its previous investor day in April 2019 to $8-9 billion. It expected its operating losses to peak between 2020-22; but it now predicts that the landmark will be reached in 2021. The profitability horizon has been maintained as FY 2024.
Collectively, the Disney team has set itself a target of 300-350 million subscriptions by FY 2024. Will that take it ahead of Netflix as a whole at that time?
In all probability, yes. With limited headroom for growth from 2022, it’s quite likely that the Reed Hastings-headed streamer will have to work hard to rope in subscribers. Even in India — one of its key growth markets — where it has different subscription slabs in order to lure different income strata in Indian society. Estimates are that Netflix in India has single digit million subscribers. Hedge fund Third Point founder Dan Loeb, who has been constantly cheerleading Disney to invest increasingly in Disney+, should have little reason to complain now that the organisation has pivoted itself around streaming.
The market responded well to Disney’s Investor Day announcement. The stock was trading at a high of $173.96 against the previous day’s close of $154.69.
iWorld
Prime Video to stream Tamil thriller Exam from May 15
Seven-episode series from National Award-winner A. Sarkunam streams in India and 240-plus countries
MUMBAI: Prime Video announced on April 27th that Exam, a taut seven-episode suspense drama set against the crucible of high-stakes competitive testing, will premiere on May 15th in India and across more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.
Written and directed by A. Sarkunam, a National Award-winner, the series is produced under the Wallwatcher Films banner by the creative duo Pushkar and Gayatri, who have previously delivered Suzhal: The Vortex (both seasons) and Vadhandhi: The Fable of Velonie for the platform. Dushara Vijayan and Aditi Balan lead the cast, with Abbas in a pivotal role.
The show will stream in Tamil with dubbed versions in Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam, and Kannada, and subtitles in 15 languages, including English, a distribution sweep that underscores Prime Video’s push to globalise Indian regional content.
Nikhil Madhok, director and head of originals at Prime Video India, framed the series as both timely and commercially astute. “Exam is a very timely and relevant story that captures the emotional intensity of competitive exams and masterfully transforms it into a thrilling high-stakes drama,” he said. “We believe it is a story that will resonate deeply with millions.” Madhok noted that it was a privilege to once again collaborate with Pushkar and Gayatri following the success of Suzhal and Vadhandhi.
For Pushkar and Gayatri, the series is as much a moral reckoning as a thriller. “With Exam, we wanted to dig into ambition, injustice, and those moral crossroads that people face when pushed to the edge,” the creative producers said. “At the heart of this story is a young woman who refuses to remain powerless. Her journey is not about glamorising defiance, but about exploring the emotional and ethical cost of standing up to a system stacked against her.” They described Prime Video as “an incredible collaborator” and “the perfect home” to bring the series to global audiences.
Wallwatcher Films, which Pushkar and Gayatri founded and run, has been on a productive streak with the platform. Beyond Exam, the company is also readying Vadhandhi Season 2 for Prime Video, making the duo one of the platform’s most active regional creative partners.
The real exam, it seems, is for Prime Video itself: can a Tamil drama about systemic injustice and a young woman’s defiance crack audiences from Chennai to Chicago? If Pushkar and Gayatri’s track record is anything to go by, the answer is likely yes, and the results will be out on May 15th.
