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News Chapek FIRED, Iger New CEO
- Thread starter Chef Mickey
- Start date
From an interview with Deadline -
"DEADLINE: When you were speaking at the Legends ceremony on Friday, you dropped a little bit more of what seemed like a serious next phase for the Walt Disney Company. You said Disney+ and some of your other platforms, we are going to make things interactive. This has been floating around for a while — you even brought Mike White on board to facilitate it — but is the metaverse the future of Disney?
CHAPEK: (laughs) We call it next-gen storytelling. We tend not to use the M word too often, because it has a lot of hair on it. But yes, Disney+ will not just be a movie-service platform, but it’s going to become an experiential lifestyle platform. A platform for the whole company to embody both the physical things that you might be able to experience in a theme park, but also the digital experiences that you can get through media.
DEADLINE: That sounds like a very big swing, but how does it work on a practical level?
CHAPEK: Here’s how. So, we wish every person would have the opportunity to come to our parks, but we realize that’s not a reality for some people. In order to reach the 90% of people that will never ever be able to get to a Disney park, we have before us an opportunity to turn what was a movie-service platform to an experiential platform and give them the ability to ride Haunted Mansion from a virtual standpoint. The utility isn’t just to have the same experience. Maybe we’ll give them the opportunity what every single person in the park wants to do, and unfortunately too many of them do it, just to get off the attraction. See how it works, see how those ghost dancers move…
DEADLINE: Are we talking about something with goggles, like Oculus?
CHAPEK: Short term, yes. Long term maybe not, maybe something more.
DEADLINE: How?
CHAPEK: We want to give people the ability to experience digitally, something that’s akin to a physical experience that they necessarily can’t be at that place in that time. But it’s even more important than that. So, when a family comes to our parks, we know exactly what you did. Let’s say you stay a week. We got seven days, 24 hours a day. We know everything that you do in the park. And if you give us the permission and ability through the membership app, we’ll program your Disney+ experience, not according to what you watched last or what other people who watch this show, but to what you did, what you experienced.
DEADLINE: That’s a real A.I. algorithm, next-level stuff.
CHAPEK: Bingo! And that’s what we aspire to do. That’s why we call it Next Generation Storytelling.
Now, when I speak to Kevin Feige or Kathleen Kennedy, or Sean Bailey, that’s what we talk about. Those conversations are now about how do we unbridle our storytelling to unleash a new dimension? It’s a third dimension of the canvas, so that you can start understanding what tools are available from a technology standpoint. How you can use those as an arsenal, like a different paintbrush, right? Telling stories in that third dimension brings everything together.
DEADLINE: How far along are you on this?
CHAPEK: We are in the very embryonic beginnings of this. I would say it’s akin to lab experiments that do proof of concept. When I talked to you about being in an attraction and being able to get off and check things out like that animatronic figure that looks like Jack Sparrow. Let’s go check them out from 360 degrees interact with Jack Sparrow. That’s the ultimate expression. Today, we’re working towards that.
DEADLINE: Corporately, how will it play out?
CHAPEK: You notice when we did our reorganization, we have two business units. We have one that’s physical and we have one that’s media/digital. That was very intentional, because now there’s just two points we need to connect."
deadline.com
"DEADLINE: When you were speaking at the Legends ceremony on Friday, you dropped a little bit more of what seemed like a serious next phase for the Walt Disney Company. You said Disney+ and some of your other platforms, we are going to make things interactive. This has been floating around for a while — you even brought Mike White on board to facilitate it — but is the metaverse the future of Disney?
CHAPEK: (laughs) We call it next-gen storytelling. We tend not to use the M word too often, because it has a lot of hair on it. But yes, Disney+ will not just be a movie-service platform, but it’s going to become an experiential lifestyle platform. A platform for the whole company to embody both the physical things that you might be able to experience in a theme park, but also the digital experiences that you can get through media.
DEADLINE: That sounds like a very big swing, but how does it work on a practical level?
CHAPEK: Here’s how. So, we wish every person would have the opportunity to come to our parks, but we realize that’s not a reality for some people. In order to reach the 90% of people that will never ever be able to get to a Disney park, we have before us an opportunity to turn what was a movie-service platform to an experiential platform and give them the ability to ride Haunted Mansion from a virtual standpoint. The utility isn’t just to have the same experience. Maybe we’ll give them the opportunity what every single person in the park wants to do, and unfortunately too many of them do it, just to get off the attraction. See how it works, see how those ghost dancers move…
DEADLINE: Are we talking about something with goggles, like Oculus?
CHAPEK: Short term, yes. Long term maybe not, maybe something more.
DEADLINE: How?
CHAPEK: We want to give people the ability to experience digitally, something that’s akin to a physical experience that they necessarily can’t be at that place in that time. But it’s even more important than that. So, when a family comes to our parks, we know exactly what you did. Let’s say you stay a week. We got seven days, 24 hours a day. We know everything that you do in the park. And if you give us the permission and ability through the membership app, we’ll program your Disney+ experience, not according to what you watched last or what other people who watch this show, but to what you did, what you experienced.
DEADLINE: That’s a real A.I. algorithm, next-level stuff.
CHAPEK: Bingo! And that’s what we aspire to do. That’s why we call it Next Generation Storytelling.
Now, when I speak to Kevin Feige or Kathleen Kennedy, or Sean Bailey, that’s what we talk about. Those conversations are now about how do we unbridle our storytelling to unleash a new dimension? It’s a third dimension of the canvas, so that you can start understanding what tools are available from a technology standpoint. How you can use those as an arsenal, like a different paintbrush, right? Telling stories in that third dimension brings everything together.
DEADLINE: How far along are you on this?
CHAPEK: We are in the very embryonic beginnings of this. I would say it’s akin to lab experiments that do proof of concept. When I talked to you about being in an attraction and being able to get off and check things out like that animatronic figure that looks like Jack Sparrow. Let’s go check them out from 360 degrees interact with Jack Sparrow. That’s the ultimate expression. Today, we’re working towards that.
DEADLINE: Corporately, how will it play out?
CHAPEK: You notice when we did our reorganization, we have two business units. We have one that’s physical and we have one that’s media/digital. That was very intentional, because now there’s just two points we need to connect."
Bob Chapek Details Disney’s Next Big Move, The 100th Anniversary, ESPN & Hulu’s Futures, & Bringing “Everything Together”
Backstage at D23, the House of Mouse CEO had some big ambitions & practical realities on the agenda for the next decade
deadline.com
Could that interview have any bigger softballs for $lappie to answer in his typical MBA-mumbo-jumbo way?
MrPromey
Well-Known Member
.....
DEADLINE: That’s a real A.I. algorithm, next-level stuff.
CHAPEK: Bingo! And that’s what we aspire to do. That’s why we call it Next Generation Storytelling.
Now, when I speak to Kevin Feige or Kathleen Kennedy, or Sean Bailey, that’s what we talk about. Those conversations are now about how do we unbridle our storytelling to unleash a new dimension? It’s a third dimension of the canvas, so that you can start understanding what tools are available from a technology standpoint. How you can use those as an arsenal, like a different paintbrush, right? Telling stories in that third dimension brings everything together.
DEADLINE: How far along are you on this?
CHAPEK: We are in the very embryonic beginnings of this. I would say it’s akin to lab experiments that do proof of concept. When I talked to you about being in an attraction and being able to get off and check things out like that animatronic figure that looks like Jack Sparrow. Let’s go check them out from 360 degrees interact with Jack Sparrow. That’s the ultimate expression. Today, we’re working towards that.
DEADLINE: Corporately, how will it play out?
CHAPEK: You notice when we did our reorganization, we have two business units. We have one that’s physical and we have one that’s media/digital. That was very intentional, because now there’s just two points we need to connect."
Bob Chapek Details Disney’s Next Big Move, The 100th Anniversary, ESPN & Hulu’s Futures, & Bringing “Everything Together”
Backstage at D23, the House of Mouse CEO had some big ambitions & practical realities on the agenda for the next decade
Let them figure out how to make their website run like it's not being sent through a 56kb modem straw and and maybe get their in-park mobile ordering working as well as Taco Bell and then perhaps, we'll take the discussion of "real A.I. algorithm, next-level stuff" seriously.
Until then, I see this as all spoon-fed promo slid to Bob to regurgitate on his "I do more than count beans: my love affair with counting lentils!" world tour.
But in other "new"
:CNBC Reporter Calls Bob Chapek “BOB PAYCHECK” On Live Television
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Side note from something in that interview: I find it hilarious how a year later, big companies are now starting to sidestep the "metaverse" talk they were all in on. I guess the slow kids eventually realized Facebook's name change to draw public attention away from major company problems to focus on something that's been right around the corner for decades wasn't all it seemed, after all.
As far as I can tell, the main drivers of VR are still gaming and that, um... other business that has a strong history of pushing technological innovation forward.
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All his blather about making D+ essentially the center of all things Disney... 
CaptainAmerica
Well-Known Member
I'm sorry, why is that bad?All his blather about making D+ essentially the center of all things Disney...
It's a house of (synergy) cards. What does Space Mountain have to do with a streaming platform? What does Frozen merchandise on a Target shelf have to do with D+? It's misguided. IMHO. I understand theatrical releases (and now obviously movies that premiere on D+ instead of getting a theatrical release) can lead to things in the parks when something is a hit, but this whole "focus everything in the company on a streaming platform that has a subscriber ceiling" is just idiotic to me.
CaptainAmerica
Well-Known Member
Walt Disney basically invented this. This is OG Disney. This is the 21st century version of Walt Disney's Disneyland, Walt Disney Presents, and Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color.
CaptainAmerica
Well-Known Member
No no no. Bob Chapek and Bob Iger invented the concept "synergies" in a Harvard Business School think tank as a way to screw guests and ostracize Joe Rohde and Tony Baxter.
VJ
Well-Known Member
I honestly understand where @HauntedPirate is coming from. It's a bit hard, for me at least, to imagine how what is now mostly a video-on-demand streaming service will end up becoming a hub for all things Disney, a "metaverse" at that. I'm just not sure how that jump could be made unless they radically overhaul the service and entirely redefine what Disney+ is.
CaptainAmerica
Well-Known Member
VJ
Well-Known Member
Yes, but how do you change Disney+ so much that the original purpose of the service is diluted while saying it's still Disney+? Will it be more like something like DisneyLife in the UK was - movies, TV, music, books, all Disney media all in one place?
Phicinfan
Well-Known Member
Simple, you add a shopping area - link to shop disney? Then add a virtual effect so folks can do or see park content and get the experience they are there. Keep the video portion as is, for on demand and such...
You could possibly add a book content as well, if Disney so desired, specifically centered on books about and the making of those movies.
Pretty simple if you ask me.
He prefers "Next-gen storytelling". The "M word has too much hair on it", says the bald guy.
MrPromey
Well-Known Member
So really, this is just branding BS and maybe a single-sign-in initative that will only ever be adopted by a portion of their audience unless forced?*
I can't see myself (or anyone else really) shopping or reading book content from the comfort of my couch with my roku remote just like I don't see myself watching the Mandalorian on my phone or tablet or laptop when I have a 65" tv with surround sound just sitting there.
That or the 55" tv in my bedroom (or the 48" in another room) is the only way we use the current Disney+ today and if they had designs to do something else with it, they probably should have launched it as that rather than a video streaming service.
*at which point, they'd probably start to lose a lot of non-head-of-households from their various current setups.
Phicinfan
Well-Known Member
Well I travel for work a ton, and I do enjoy my Disney+ content on my ipad when on the road. I believe you are missing the big picture here, but then again, til we see exactly what is offered we really don't know.
CaptainAmerica
Well-Known Member
They already have this. My MDX profile knows all of the affinities and memberships I have with TWDC.
You're overthinking it.
Do you shop Amazon Prime from the Prime Video app on your Roku? No, of course not. But it's still part of the same package of what you're paying for when you have Amazon Prime.
MrPromey
Well-Known Member
So you can manage your Disney+ subscription through My Disney Experience? It tracks your in-store purchases when you visit a Disney store or go to a Disney movie in theaters?
Actually, now that I think about it, the name "My Disney Experience" sounds better to encompass everything the company offers than Disney+, don't you think?
True but Amazon Prime started as a "free" (but not as in beer) shipping service based through their website - not a video streaming app. It was literally the first thing of it's kind supporting what was the only consumer offering they had at the time and then branched out from there to become the weird amalgamation it is today.
"Free" shipping with VOD, video game freebies and other semi-random things thrown in only seems to make some sort of logically sense in hindsight. Really, all these other things grew under Prime because they were, at the time, included without initial increases to the service price so yeah, we were getting a free ham with our oil changes, so to speak, but nobody was questioning it because the ham was free.
From the announcement, this seems more like Disney's attempt to create a sort of cable bundle for Disney products.
What Disney has actually has a much stronger set of connections but it's just weird they have decided to try to pivot the streaming Disney+ product into the everything-to-everyone product/service they want to roll out.
Prime as your example, was essentially a paid discount program of sorts from the start so including more discounts and freebies kind of sort of made sense.
Disney+ is, today, a paid video service that's about to get more expensive. This feels like Disney's way from a consumer perspective of trying to justify and allow for more price increases there, among other things, by making what your paying for about something more than just the video service.
They could have literally picked anything from their corporate empire to turn into this hub or come up with something new for the umbrella with the video service under it but that doesn't seem to be what they're doing - and that's why, from a consumer perspective, it seems odd, to me.
My guess is from a strategic perspective, they're trying to make it Disney Plus because they have a large number of engaged customers on that platform and they probably think this is a way to better lock them in and reduce churn while also obfuscating the losses in that division once it's nolonger just about streaming and content costs but represents the "center" of the company.
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