If you listen closely, you can hear Disney sharpening their talons in preparation for the late 2019 launch of their standalone streaming service. In a recent development, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that “Our plan on the Disney side is to price this substantially below where Netflix is,” relayed Iger on the company’s Q4 earnings call. “That is in part reflective of the fact it’ll have less volume,” added Disney’s top executive.
Iger also stated that the streamer will launch with "a lot of high quality" entertainment, and the subscription fee will increase as the platform unleashes more content. As most of you are aware, Netflix currently costs anywhere between $7.99 and $13.99 a month to stream an array of studio content including the service's original series and films. Iger also recognizes that there's a "gigantic" opportunity to create deals for die-hard House of Mouse fans, including those who are Disney credit card holders and those who frequent the company's parks and resorts.
The service will launch roughly a year after isney's ESPN Plus, and is set to be advertisement-free. Recently, Disney announced that they will be pulling their content from Netflix, and will instead host the material on their platform. “The launch of our direct-to-consumer services mark an entirely new growth strategy for the company, one that takes advantage of the incredible opportunity that changing technology provides us to leverage the strength of our great brands,” said Iger at the time. Meanwhile, it's been said that the potential aqusition of Fox's TV and film business is still active, despite reports of it going the way of the dodo.