One more point on the Disney in China. Where is the effort to educate the public on what makes Disney special (ie exposure to Disney films, shorts and the legacy of Walt Disney and his artists). Where are the screenings of "Snow White and the Seven Dwavres" at the local Chinese multiplex? Where are the making of television specials attached to TV airings of Disney and Pixar films? Where are the localized books about the history of Disney and its various creative achievements? (Christopher Finch's "Art of Walt Disney" comes to mind)
At a Citigroup global business conference (which I will pull up when I get the chance), Jay Rasulo talked about how the Disney Channel is the company's global BRAND ambassador. He noted, however, that TWDC would not be able to create a Chinese version of the Disney Channel and that Shanghai Disneyland would fill the void. That's all and well Jay, but a "BRAND ambassador", as you put it, isn't some massive resort, which is certainly a good long term goal. A "BRAND ambassador" is when a child and his parents go see "Beauty and the Beast" on the big screen and they share a moment together or someone stumbles upon those new Mickey Mouse shorts on YouKu and eagerly awaits each new episode every week or a child whose mother or father gives him or her a Mickey Mouse doll on their birthday that ends up being their closest companion. It's about touching others even though you may speak different languages and live on different sides of the world.
Here are Rasulo's comments from the 2012 Citigroup conference on SDR's role as TWDC's beachhead to China.
http://cdn.media.ir.thewaltdisneycompany.com/2012/events/jar-citi-2012-0105-transcript.pdf
Jason Bazinet – Analyst, Citigroup
And given your history at Disney in the parks division, and I know it's still a few years out, but do you mind just taking a second and explaining a little bit of the sheer scope and size of the operation in China and what it will ultimately be relative to the US investments?
Jay Rasulo – Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, The Walt Disney Company
In terms of Shanghai Disneyland?
Jason Bazinet – Analyst, Citigroup
Yes.
Jay Rasulo – Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, The Walt Disney Company
So, not to forget the park we already have in China, in Hong Kong, Hong Kong Disneyland has been doing amazingly well over the last couple of years, has definitely contributed along with Paris to that international growth picture you've seen.
But Shanghai Disneyland is a very important strategic down stroke for the company. I mentioned that part of our international strategy, and if you look around particularly at emerging markets, investments of scale are something that we have decided to do in new markets. We recently announced a free to air deal in Russia to get a joint venture to get the Disney Channel on free to air television in Russia. We are engaged in buying in the rest of UTV in India that we own 50% of, but really want to have a significant statement there.
And in China where of course media entry is much more difficult than it is in most counties of the world, we decided our strategic play was going to be to plant the flag of a major destination theme park in Shanghai. And we worked on it for a decade. As you all know, the deal came to fruition, it is underway. It is a sizable investment in a partnership between the Chinese government and Disney. It's on a very, very big piece of land in Pudong in between the airport and the older part, more developed part of Shanghai, although Pudong is becoming quite developed. And it has the potential to be probably our second biggest resort around the world.
So the scale there -- of course we won't open at that size, but we'll open with significant scale if we compare it to Hong Kong, and have every reason to believe even in the microcosm of the Hong Kong Disneyland project where we see bigger and bigger penetration from mainland China, really gives us a good perspective and a good high optimism about how successful this park can be. It will be, look quite different from our other parks around the world in terms of how it's organized, but it will be 100% Disney, make no mistake about it. It will be distinctly Chinese, but it will be 100% built around Disney equities. That's what our partners want, that's of course what we want, and we have every reason to believe that it will accelerate quickly. And as I said, it certainly has the land potential and we think the market potential to be our second biggest destination around the world. And when you think about the size of the Orlando destination, that's a pretty big statement. And even Tokyo which brushes up against 30 million attendees a year. So we're pretty optimistic about it.
