By João Santos

We all know the effects that the pandemic has had on businesses - even the biggest media conglomerates have struggled in some way.

Indeed, look no further than the mighty Walt Disney Company, one of the big 6 conglomerates that own close to 90% of the content we encounter, and yet it failed to increase its annual revenue in 2020, going down to $65.39 billion as opposed to the $69.61 billion it had accumulated the previous year. 

Nonetheless, and perhaps unsurprisingly, as the streaming market skyrocketed, Disney’s main SVoD venture, Disney+, managed to turn in impressive revenue. In fact, in its Q1 2021 earnings report, the streaming platform announced it has amassed a total of $3.5 billion in revenue, and it’s announced a thumping 100 million subscribers - surpassing the 2024 goal that the company had set for itself. In other words, it’s three years ahead of schedule. 

With all that being said, it comes as no surprise that Disney has decided to invest in its streaming empire; this time, with Disney+ Star.

What is Disney+ Star?

The streaming service was officially launched on February 23 in countries across Europe, as well as Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Singapore. Along with the content that already existed on the platform, Star has brought with it over 75 TV shows, 270 movies and a few exclusive Star originals to spice things up.

On top of that, the company has already announced its plans to continue its global expansion by launching in markets across many other countries later this year, from which it has highlighted: Eastern Europe, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Latin America.

It is important, however, to note that this will come under a separate streaming service which they have called Star+. Everything in streaming, it seems, needs that magical ‘+’.

It looks like Star has launched, or will do, in every market except the United States. With this Star launch, Disney has decided to also increase the overall pricing of its streaming service, including in the US where the content isn’t even available. The new rates are £7.99 per month or £79.90 for an annual subscription.

Star has come to act as a separate ‘aisle’ of Disney+, albeit still accessible within the same platform, which will divide family-friendly content from R-rated movies and TV shows (as well as other content that didn’t fit in the family-friendly brand). 

To make sure that this ‘aisle’ is child-safe, the company has implemented - and gone out of its way to advertise it extensively on the Disney+ official Twitter page - parental restrictions in the form of password-protected profiles that would disallow children from accessing such content.

In short, the new streaming extension to Disney+ is the international version of Hulu, another video streaming platform fully controlled by the media giant after its acquisition of 21st Century Fox in March of 2019.

Don’t forget, of course, that while Disney may have full control of Hulu, the streaming platform won’t be fully owned by the media conglomerate until 2024, when it will buy the remainder 33% off its competitor, Comcast.

But, wait a minute, if Disney already owns Hulu, and if Hulu already has content aimed at adults, why not just expand it internationally? I hear you ask.

Star and Hulu; completely different or more of the same?

The main reasons Disney has decided not to expand Hulu internationally seems to be content and brand identity. While it is indeed true that Hulu already possesses adult-aimed content, some of which will make its appearance on Star, the former seems to be going in a slightly different direction. In effect, Star aims to present content already owned by the media conglomerate, as opposed to Hulu’s multi-studio catalogue.

On top of that, we have to understand the full scope of Disney’s brand. For instance, as of today, Disney has a physical presence in 30 countries and a reach, through its channels and multiple ventures, of a whopping 133 countries. While Star is growing internationally, the brand itself has been everywhere for decades. In short, Disney is only using its already popular and omnipresent brand instead of having to build up a new one.

“In terms of the general entertainment offering internationally,” says Disney CEO Bob Chapek, “we want to mirror our successful Disney Plus strategy by using our Disney Plus technical platform, bringing in content we already own and distributing it under a successful international brand that we also already own, which is, of course, Star.”

What to expect 

As outlined previously, Star has come out with a jaw-dropping amount of content, as well as plans to further expand into other countries as 2021 progresses. Disney will also be producing more original entertainment exclusive to Star, on top of the already-owned content that will keep rolling out.

While Chapek has made it unclear whether or not Hulu will have a long lifetime in the streaming world, it has been reported that some Disney executives have been in charge of overseeing the streaming service. 

This indicates that, while still with an uncertain future, Disney hasn’t forgotten about it and, most likely, has some plans in the making. Until then, the American audience will have to settle for two different subscriptions in order to access content from the same media company.