The future of Disney Plus is a mess

He fell silent recently CEO Josh D’Amaro He says he wants to turn Disney Plus into the company’s “interactive and immersive digital hub.” It used to be that people would go to the movies or amusement parks to immerse themselves in Disney’s fantasy worlds. But now, D’Amaro says he sees Disney Plus becoming “the primary connection between Disney and its fans.”

The general theme D’Amaro made during his call with investors this week is that Disney Plus and Disney parks are places people visit to spend money while interacting with the company’s characters and worlds. D’Amaro framed the streaming service and parks as free parts of Disney’s larger brand that together could create a “more connected fan experience” as Disney uses “technology as an accelerator.”

A lot of this makes sense on paper. Watching a movie or show on Disney Plus can inspire a fan to plan a trip to Disney World, and a trip to Disney World may prompt a visitor to subscribe to the streaming service if they don’t already have one. It also tracks that Disney will put more energy into building the Disney Plus profile given how expensive the subscription is compared to the costs associated with taking a trip to one of the Disney theme parks.

Damaro – who was he? Banging this kind of synergy drum Since becoming CEO – he has told investors that limiting Disney Plus disruption by making the platform central to the Disney brand “may be the single most important opportunity we have.” But what’s harder to understand is how Disney Plus can be placed “in the middle” of Disney’s sports, games, and experiences (read: parks) in practice or if it’s something viewers actually want.

What is this He does It sounds a lot like Disney taking cues from other tech companies like Meta that have a history of driving engagement on their various platforms by adding features that no one asked for. The idea of ​​Disney Plus going this route is reminiscent of the way Instagram has become a bloated, unintuitive platform as CEOs build… stories / Rollers / shopping Features in it in order to prevent people from jumping to other social media apps. Most of us can agree that this approach to boosting engagement has resulted in a significantly worse user experience, but at the same time, an act Keep users logged in.

Like all major streaming companies, one of Disney Plus’s biggest goals is to prevent subscribers from leaving the platform. One way Disney can realistically do this is to keep releasing new projects that people want to watch, but D’Amaro’s recent comments make it seem like we may soon see Disney Plus looking like an overly crowded, maze-like mall designed to get people spending money on things they didn’t even think about in the first place.

This would go against the grain of what draws people to streaming platforms: the desire He watches Something knowing that they had already paid for admission in advance. This type of experience is fundamentally different from what motivates people to go on expensive vacations where they will encounter Disney characters and have no choice but to buy expensive food. But that might not stop Disney from trying to make this work, especially since some of it Other recent gambles did not pay off.