Disney+ Has Its Pluses and Minuses
The price of the new streaming service may just be low enough to entice casual fans, but it’s a costly endeavor that won’t turn a profit for years.
Introducing Disney+.
Photographer: Disney
Investors, allow yourselves to be enchanted by Disney’s magic, swept away in its magnificent story lines – and try not to be concerned with the usual financial complexities.
That was the theme of Walt Disney Co.’s presentation to shareholders on Thursday, as it revealed the product at the center of the 96-year-old company’s future: Disney+. The video-streaming service will launch Nov. 12, but it won’t begin making any money until 2024. That’s long after CEO Bob Iger, the leader of this new Disney mission, will have retired. Just as the company’s Pixar animations and Marvel superhero films require a suspension of disbelief, so too, to some degree, does the notion that the best path forward for Disney – a force of the movie theater box office and marquee member of the traditional cable bundle – is to be distilled into a $6.99-a-month app.