Disney vs. Netflix

Answer the Case Questions

Disney VS Netflix Case One: Answer the following Questions 1. How is the competitive environment of Disney changing? How do these changes alter Disney's relation to Netflix? 2. Why does Disney hope to acquire parts of 21st Century Fox? What kind of tactic is this? Which strategy does this tactic support? 3. In fact, what is Disney's overall strategy for adapting to its environment? Would you say its strategy is to imitate Netflix? Why or why not? 4. Whatever Disney's overall strategy is, what do you think Disney's strategy ought to be? Is Disney on the right track? Should it focus more on resembling or on differentiating itself from Netflix, for example? 5. Describe the traditional Disney business model before alternative distribution channels from streaming services existed. 6. Why did streaming services including Netflix, Amazon and Hulu develop their own original programming? 7. List and describe all the benefits to Disney if were able to acquire Fox. 8. Describe the steps Disney is taking even without the acquisition to develop and distribute programming. 9. What are the risks to Disney of expanding and growing beyond its traditional business model. 10. Why is Disney trying to transform itself? How is Disney trying to transform itself? 11. What is direct-to-consumer content-distribution services? Which specific brands is Disney trying to monetize via direct-to-consumer content-distribution services? 12. What is Disney+? What role(s) does Disney+ play at Disney? 13. Define Netflix's hegemony. How is Disney attempting to address Netflix's hegemony and why? 14. What business segments does Walt Disney own and operate? How would you rank-order these business segment by profitability? Behind Disney's Play for Fox: Determination to Beat Netflix; Entertainment giant's priority is now remaking its TV business to compete for streaming viewers Walt Disney Co.'s market capitalization is almost twice as big as Netflix Inc.'s. It operates the most successful movie studio in Hollywood, one of the most profitable channels on cable television and the biggest theme-park business in the world. Yet its pursuit of 21st Century Fox Inc.'s entertainment assets indicates that repositioning its television business to compete in the streaming, a-la-carte world Netflix dominates has become Disney's priority. Disney's TV operation alone is substantially larger than Netflix, but its growth has stalled while its digital competitor is booming. Netflix's revenue increased 32% in the first nine months of its current fiscal year to $8.4 billion, compared with a year earlier, and its operating income rose 163% to $593.4 million. In the first nine months of its fiscal year, Disney's TV revenue was flat at $18 billion and its operating income fell 11% to $6 billion. Recent talks for Disney to acquire Fox's entertainment cable networks and film and television studio, and stakes in European satellite broadcaster Sky and streaming television company Hulu, have stalled, and it is unclear whether they will restart, let alone result in a deal, according to people close to the discussions. Fox and Wall Street Journal parent News Corp share common ownership. In an interview before the Fox talks were reported this week, Disney Chief Strategy Officer Kevin Mayer said Disney has in the past decade spent $15 billion buying up "really high quality" intellectual property from Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel Entertainment and "Star Wars" producer Lucasfilm. "Now we've turned our attention to the one platform seeing growth challenges," he said. "That's the television platform." That same logic applies to its pursuit of Fox's assets, analysts and people close to Disney said. The company is already in the midst of a multibillion-dollar effort to launch direct-to-consumer online video offerings, an effort that could be the final legacy of Chief Executive Robert Iger, who is scheduled to retire in 2019. That same year, Disney has said, it plans to launch a family-entertainment service featuring television shows and movies, including recent theatrical releases that currently stream on Netflix under a deal that ends next year and Mr. Iger intends to not renew. Next year, Disney aims to introduce an ESPN streaming service featuring sports not currently available on television. Both will use technology from the streaming company BamTech, on which Disney this year spent $1.58 billion for majority control. Mr. Mayer described the streaming services as "not an anti-Netflix move, but a pro-Disney move." He said he believes Disney's video offerings can stand alongside Netflix's, as well as Amazon.com Inc.'s streaming service, in a future where families subscribe to multiple digital-entertainment services. But if Disney isn't looking to take down Netflix, it is reckoning with the company's success. In addition, Disney and other Hollywood studios now view Netflix less as a cash-rich buyer for its content than as a competitor, particularly as the digital company has moved aggressively into original production with hits such as "Stranger Things" and even big-budget movies such as the coming "Bright," starring Will Smith. In pulling its movies from Netflix in 2019, Disney gave up an estimated $300-million-plus a year, people with knowledge of the arrangement said. And while it currently produces Marvel superhero series such as "Daredevil" for Netflix, new Marvel shows in the future are expected to live on the company's own streaming service. "Netflix is eating the world," said a veteran Hollywood executive. "The biggest challenge for Disney, and for all of us, is to compete with them." Buying Fox's 30% stake in Hulu would give Disney majority control of that streaming service, which the company could position as an adult-targeted entertainment service that stands alongside its family and sports ones, said people close to the company. It could feature content produced by Twentieth Century Fox's television studio, as well as shows that air on the FX cable network, both of which Disney would buy under the stalled talks, said people close to Disney. With Sky, Disney would get the dominant European pay-television distributor. Fox currently owns 39% of Sky and has bid $15.5 billion to buy the rest--an offer currently held up by U.K. regulatory review. Owning even part of a traditional TV distributor would be a big shift for Disney. But it would bring the company more in line with two of its biggest competitors: Cable firm Comcast Corp., owner of NBCUniversal, and AT&T Inc., which owns DirecTV and has agreed toacquire Time Warner Inc. Buying Fox would bring Disney one other significant asset that would make it a more formidable competitor in TV and film. Under a deal that dates to the 1990s, Fox controls big- and small-screen rights to Marvel's X-Men and other characters who have appeared in their comic books, as well as the Fantastic Four. Fox has produced 15 movies with its Marvel rights, including the hits "X-Men: Days of Future Past," "Deadpool" and this year's "Logan." It has recently moved into television, with "Legion" on FX and "The Gifted" on the Fox network. After an acquisition, Disney would consolidate its control of all its Marvel characters save for SpiderMan, still at Sony Pictures Entertainment , and could have them appear together in films and TV series. Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Robert Iger disclosed new details on coming streaming services and the Star Wars film franchise as the company reported declines in three of its four core businesses for its latest quarter. Mr. Iger wouldn't comment on recent reports that Disney pursued an acquisition of 21st Century Fox Inc.'s entertainment assets and declined to take questions on the topic during a conference call with analysts on Thursday. Disney is developing new television series based on some of its biggest franchises--"Star Wars," "Monster Inc.," "High School Musical" and Marvel--that will be carried on a Netflix-style streaming service set to launch in the second half of 2019, Mr. Iger told analysts. Those are the first specific programming announcements Disney has made about the service. By placing such premium content there, rather than on its cable channels or ABC network, the company is signaling that it views the direct-to-consumer offering as a high priority. Mr. Iger also provided some information on pricing for the service, saying it will be "substantially below" that of Netflix Inc. because it will start with "substantially less volume." Netflix currently charges between $8 and $12 a month. As Disney adds more content to its service after 2019, the CEO said, the price could increase. Mr. Iger also revealed that an ESPN digital offering scheduled for next year will debut in the spring and be called ESPN Plus. It will be part of a redesigned ESPN app that includes sports scores and highlights along with content from the cable network available only topeople with a pay-TV subscription. The digital offering will include sports such as hockey and tennis that don't air on the cable network. In addition, Mr. Iger for the first time provided details on the company's plans to produce Star Wars movies beyond a current trilogy set to end in 2019. Rian Johnson, the writer-director of this December's "The Last Jedi," is developing "a brand new Star Wars trilogy" for Disney, the CEO said. Generating confidence in the future is critical for Disney as it is coming off a comparatively weak fiscal year for its movie and consumer-products units and more declines in its television business. ESPN continued to lose subscribers in its fiscal fourth quarter ended Sept. 30 while programming costs for sports rights rose and advertising revenue declined. But "affiliate revenue" from cable and satellite-TV operators increased. Viewership at millennial-focused cable network Freeform was also down. The company's cable revenue for the quarter was flat at $3.95 billion and operating income declined 1% to $1.24 billion from the same quarter a year ago. Broadcast revenue for the ABC network and studio plunged 11% to $1.5 billion and operating income was off 15% to $229 million due to lower ratings and ad revenue. In the year-earlier period, the network benefited from campaign advertising and aired the Emmy Awards. Sales of programs to other outlets also fell in the latest quarter. Profits from the A&E cable networks also dropped and losses at streaming service Hulu grew. Disney owns minority stakes in both. Total television revenue dropped 3% in the quarter to $5.47 billion and operating income fell 12% to $1.475 billion. Disney's movie studio was hurt by the underperformance of "Cars 3" and a write-off of nearly $98 million on the animated movie "Gigantic," which was previously scheduled for 2020 but was cancelled. The just-ended fiscal year's movie slate, while strong, didn't quite stack up to the preceding year, in which Disney had mega-hits including "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," "Zootopia" and "Finding Dory." Movie studio revenue dropped 21% last quarter to $1.4 billion and operating income declined 43% to $218 million. The drop was also caused in part by a profitable sale of classic "Star Wars" movies to television outlets last year. The only Disney business to grow in the fourth quarter was parks and resorts. Performance improved at Disneyland in California, Disneyland Paris and Shanghai Disney Resort, the company said, as well at its cruise ships and vacation club. But Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., was hurt by a number of factors, including Hurricane Irma. The theme park closed for two days and three cruise ship itineraries were cancelled, costing Disney a total of $100 million and shaving 14% off parks' operating income, said Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy. Disney's total revenue fell 3% in the quarter to $12.78 billion and net income declined 1% to $1.75 billion. Ms. McCarthy said results for the current fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, will be "suppressed somewhat," by $130 million in costs related to the consolidation of and investment in streaming technology company BamTech, as well as $100 million of increased investment in Hulu. Disney will also increase capital investment by about $1 billion, she said, in large part due to the cost of new Star Wars lands at Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Disney shares rose 2% to $102.68 before financial results were released late Thursday, and they were up slightly in after-hours trading. Title: Can Netflix Slay the Mouse? By: LaPorte, Nicole, Fast Company, 10859241, Nov2017, Issue 220 In August, Disney sent a missile into the media stratosphere when it abruptly announced that it was creating a pair of digital streaming services: one built around ESPN sports programming that will launch in 2018, and one devoted to Disney entertainment, to debut in 2019. This alone wasn’t shocking—Disney has long discussed creating its own streaming apps. But then CEO Bob Iger dropped another crucial detail: Disney will end its lucrative licensing deal with Netflix in 2019 and transfer Disney Animation and Pixar films, as well as TV shows from the Disney library, to its own service. Suddenly, the target became clear. Disney was going to war with Netflix. Five days later, Netflix retaliated by announcing a multiyear production deal with Shonda Rhimes, whose Shondaland dramas (Scandal, Grey’s Anatomy) have been a centerpiece for Disney-owned ABC for the past decade. Disney’s rejoinder came in September, when Iger announced that the company would also pull Marvel and Lucasfilm (i.e., Star Wars) content from Netflix to put on its entertainment app. The battle lines within the entertainment world are quickly being redrawn. Just a few years ago, Netflix was still regarded as an online video upstart, and its content chief, Ted Sarandos, was preoccupied with trying to “become HBO faster than HBO can become us,” as he said in 2013. Today, with more than 100 million worldwide users, 91 Emmy nominations for original shows this year, including Stranger Things and The Crown, and a $7 billion content budget for 2018 (nearly three times that of HBO), Netflix has eclipsed its onetime rival in many ways. It’s now racing to transform into something even bigger: a one-stop entertainment empire that not only launches new shows and movies seemingly every day, but also creates zeitgeist-rattling brands that extend beyond the living room and into physical products. In other words, Netflix wants to become Disney—before Disney can become Netflix. It’s a dynamic being repeated across industries, but also creates zeitgeist-rattling brands that extend beyond the living room and into physical products. In other words, Netflix wants to become Disney—before Disney can become Netflix. It’s a dynamic being repeated across industries, from finance to hospitality, as technological innovations proliferate: The digital disrupter and the legacy player are coming into direct competition. The stakes are high for both Netflix and Disney. With content and distribution pipelines fusing across the entertainment industry, Netflix needs to prove that it isn’t dependent on licensing other companies’ shows and can become a creative powerhouse in its own right. (Disney will surely not be the last studio to pull its content from the service, although Piper Jaffray analyst Michael Olson estimates that Netflix will have 150 million subscribers by 2020, with or without Frozen.) Disney, meanwhile, needs a streaming arm to build powerful, direct relationships with viewers, which will be increasingly important to sustaining its many other divisions, from toys to theme parks, in a world of growing entertainment options. That means Disney must build a digital presence that has, so far, eluded the company. Disney’s biggest streaming experiment to date, DisneyLife, launched in the U.K. in late 2015, offering Disney and Pixar movies and Disney Channel TV shows. It failed to take off, crippled by a $15-a-month price tag, nearly twice that of Netflix. “Disney has traditionally been a premium product,” says Eric Jackson, founder and president of the media hedge fund EMJ Capital. “But in streaming, Disney is starting from being compared to Netflix.” Some analysts suggest that Disney may have to price its new entertainment app as low as $5 a month to woo current Netflix subscribers into signing up for another service. Another challenge will be keeping people engaged, month after month. The task is similar to Disney’s efforts to get people to “drag their kids to Disneyland to see Mickey and Minnie once a year,” says Blair Westlake, the former chairman of Universal Television and former head of media and entertainment for Microsoft, “only on a more frequent basis and in a much more crowded market.” Disney will also have to create the kind of seamless, user-friendly interface that companies such as Netflix and Hulu have perfected over the years. Although Disney invested $2.5 billion to become the majority owner of BAMTech, which is building the back end of its apps, it still needs to attract and empower tech talent to develop its new services. “Who comes out of MIT and Stanford and goes, ‘I want to work at the Walt Disney Company. I want to work at Time Warner. I want to work at Viacom’?” says BTIG analyst (and relentless Disneybear) Rich Greenfield. “They don’t want to work for media companies’ stock. There isn’t the upside potential, and there isn’t the work environment that there is in Silicon Valley. If you spend a day at the Google campus and spend a day at the Disney campus, they’re totally different experiences.” Disney’s strength, of course, is the intimate hold that it has on consumers around the world—and the myriad mechanisms it has to reinforce that embrace. Disney love seems to materialize simply from breathing air, such that a 3-year-old who has never seen The Little Mermaid will still proudly wear an Ariel T-shirt, listen to the soundtrack, and read Little Mermaid books from the library—all with little encouragement from her parents. This depth of engagement will help the company mobilize its new digital offerings. Internet entrepreneur Jason Calacanis has posited that Disney could offer a free trial of its streaming services to all of its theme-park guests and instantly amass millions of subscribers. In contrast, Netflix has been obsessively focused on doing one thing better than anyone else: streaming. Its original content garners critical acclaim and buzz, but not yet the kind of marketplace momentum that drives revenue in other areas, such as clothing and books. For Netflix to compete with Disney, it will need to build brands that resonate beyond a night on the couch—and then market the bejesus out of them. “Netflix needs to do a lot of offline marketing,” says one digital insider. “Outside of the House of Cards billboards on Sunset [Boulevard], they haven’t had to do that yet on a global basis.” Disney, meanwhile, creates months- and even years-long movie campaigns that seem to touch consumers from all angles. Its approach includes teasing viewers with exclusive shorts, flooding Comic-Con with talent, and premiering trailers on Disney-owned platforms, such as Jimmy Kimmel Live! Netflix is starting to demonstrate a similar acumen—it premiered a trailer for the new season of Stranger Things during the Super Bowl and streamed the first eight minutes of the show’s first episode on Twitch. But its primary weapon remains money, as was evident during this year’s Emmy campaign, when the company rented out a lavish space in Beverly Hills and hosted nonstop cocktail parties to promote its shows. Signs of Netflix’s broader strategy are starting to emerge from its new foray into physical products. Late last year, it launched a line of merchandise based on Stranger Things. Sold through the retailer Hot Topic, it’s rumored to be heading to Target. Netflix also poached a VP from entertainment agency WME to become a licensing manager, charged with finding “curated ways to interact with our most popular content,” according to the job posting. This push is still in its infancy, but it coincides with Netflix’s desire to own more of its original content. The company has traditionally licensed even its original shows, such as Orange Is the New Black and House of Cards, from production companies. But it wholly owns Stranger Things and titles from Millarworld, the comic-book company that it acquired this year—allowing it to reap profits from any ancillary products. Evergreen items like T-shirts and posters would also allow Netflix to drive awareness for its content, which is released all at once online and deprived of the drawn-out buzz of season-long rollouts for network and cable shows. This marketing buffer could help as Netflix looks to fill a “gaping hole,” as one source put it, in its kids’ programming. Without Disney, Netflix’s biggest supplier of children’s content is DreamWorks Animation, which licenses movies such as Madagascar and Trolls and creates original shows for the service. But it’s hard to put Dawn of the Croods in the same league as Disney’s Sofia the First. Netflix’s own efforts have yielded clever kids’ shows such as Bottersnikes and Gumbles, though nothing that’s broken through. As EMJ Capital’s Jackson says, “They’re going to have to show that they have the same chops on the children’s spectrum that they’ve shown in the dramatic area.” As Disney and Netflix duke it out, other emboldened players are entering the field. Apple will reportedly invest $1 billion in original content in 2018—and that’s just in its first year of programming. Facebook is also said to be piling $1 billion into getting people to watch original videos created expressly for its platform. And Amazon, which is nipping at Netflix’s heels in both subscribers and spending, is putting $4.5 billion into content in 2017, a figure that could rise next year. “This is shifting on a daily, weekly basis,” says Peter Csathy, chairman of Creatv Media, a tech- and media-focused advisory firm. “It’s one big race to reach our hearts and minds and eyeballs.” And when the technology inevitably changes, it’ll start all over again. Stream On How will Disney’s new services stack up against Netflix’s behemoth one? Here’s a closer look. NETFLIX 1.The content Netflix is pouring $6 billion this year into English- and local-language programming around the world; next year, it plans to spend $7 billion on licensed shows and original material from the likes of David Letterman and the Coen brothers. And then there’s whatever Shonda Rhimes is cooking up. DISNEY ESPN, which alone is spending $7.3 billion on content this year, will launch its service next year—no word yet on whether NBA and NFL games will be on it. The Disney-branded entertainment app, coming in 2019, will house Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm movies, along with original films and TV series. 2. The technology With an assist from its sophisticated recommendation engine and new video previews, Netflix’s recently overhauled user interface makes surfing more seamless and enjoyable. Disney is tapping BAMTech to create its app. The streaming company, which spun out from Major League Baseball and is now majority-owned by Disney, is considered the gold standard for streaming technology. 3. The price Netflix counts more than 100 million subscribers (half of them abroad), who pay roughly $10 a month. Those subscriptions don’t cover costs—yet. Most analysts agree that Disney should keep the price low, but that will be tough with so much premium content going to the app. Disney: The Mouse Can Roar By Marco Boidin, Jordan Alzraa and Breece Suber of Panterra Global Fund PCC Dec. 7, 2017 10:07 a.m. ET PHOTO: MARK ASHMAN/DISNEY VIA GETTY IMAGES This article first appeared on SumZero, the world’s largest research community of buyside investment professionals. In some cases Barron’s edits the research for brevity; professional investors can access the full version of this thesis and tens of thousands of others at SumZero.com. Disclaimer: The authors’ fund had a position in this security at the time of posting and may trade in and out of this position without informing the SumZero community. The company created by Walt Disney is, by far, one of the most recognizable brands in the world. Disney (ticker: DIS) has long ignored major technological shifts with high impact on the media industry and new disruptive players. But more recently, after somewhat struggling with its TV channels model, the company initiated a transformation to strengthened its position in the age of Amazon.com (AMZN) and Netflix (NFLX). And the company is well positioned for success in the future: a range of license with no equals and strong experience in family entertainment of all shapes and forms. TARGET PRICE: $130 INITIAL PRICE: $101.88, Nov. 8 CLOSING PRICE: $105.46 Disney is often criticized for its inertia in adapting to the new consumption behavior stemming from new technologies. It used to over-emphasize traditional point of sales and distribution channels such as television. Because the group’s traditional media activities generate upwards of 40% of its revenue, people often reduce Disney to a media company. But the company is first and foremost a powerful brand and a fantastic publisher of exclusive content. The company’s strategy to make up for its lackluster early digital strategy is to create direct-to-consumer content-distribution services. Two video-on-demand (VOD) platforms are on their way, scheduled for 2018 and 2019. Fans will be able to enjoy their favorite programs from ESPN, Pixar, LucasFilm, Marvel and Disney through their in-house services. To serve this purpose, the company acquired 15% of BAMTtech in 2016 and raised its stake to 18% in January. BAMTech owns various streaming technologies and delivery services that Disney intends to leverage to deliver content. The company is also coming to terms with the more direct relationship that now exists between content creators and those who consume the content. BAMTech will give Disney the tools to approach this market shift and create a coherent distribution environment for its exclusive contents. The not-so-hidden objective is to impede on Netflix’s hegemony. Disney is pulling future movies from Netflix, and as the companies engage in fierce price battles, one of the fronts is psychological. Disney streaming will launch in a similar price range of $10.99 to $12.99. Disney’s leisure spaces are still popular. The theme parks and recreation centers have generated record revenue for the group. This segment has always constituted a major strength and saw its quarterly operating profit grow by 17% on average in the third quarter. Disney resorts in Asia have encouraging growth perspectives with a fairly new soaring middle-class tourism in China (the company is not the sole shareholder in these two parks). Each park operated by third-parties that pay royalties to Disney, ensuring a non-negligible source of revenue with very limited risk. On the other hand, the company recently orchestrated a return to fullownership for Disneyland Paris, in effect taking back control of the most visited tour destination in Europe. The company is also undergoing large expansion in its domestic parks (Florida and California) which will fully leverage the newly acquired, supercharged franchises: Marvel and Star Wars. This could significantly stimulate visitor growth and average visitor spending. Revenue for Disney remains solid in spite of the weak media segment and the EPSN problem (declining ad revenue, slashed subscription pricing and higher production costs). There is optimism for 2018 revenue, with a strong lineup of likely blockbusters and streaming services dedicated to its exclusive content. In order to determine the intrinsic value of the stock, we use three methods of valuation: historical price/earnings ratio; valuation of peers; and discounted cash flow. Every method estimates a price above the current market price and an intrinsic value at $126.67. We consider that an attractive price. We see an upside potential of 30% towards 2019-2020, justified by encouraging perspectives for the company (strong release schedule, consistent growth of the parks and resorts, and streaming services). We believe that future growth is possible and stock price upside will not be limited to $130. Disney is betting big on its 2019 streaming service called Disney Plus, and it started laying its cards on the table last week. In a three-hour event Thursday, Disney revealed the release date, price, shows and movies planned for its Netflix competitor. At an investor day at the company's Buena Vista studios in California, Disney CEO Bob Iger headlined a presentation that included demos of the Disney Plus app, trailers and behind-the-scenes footage of its exclusive shows like the Star Wars TV series The Mandalorian. It even threw in a new Avengers: Endgame clip for good measure. But Disney's last big reveal elicited a gasp from the crowd of investors, analysts and press there: The company priced Disney Plus at $7 a month, half the cost of HBO Now and a big discount to Netflix. Much of the premium original programming planned for Disney Plus leans into the company's big-budget franchises like Marvel and Star Wars. Some shows -- like the live-action, big-budget The Mandalorian -- have completed filming and will be available at launch. Other Marvel spinoffs, like a show based on Avengers character Loki and WandaVision featuring Scarlet Witch and Vision, will debut in the second year. Oh, and every episode of the Simpsons, too. (CNET has a comprehensive list of all the titles Disney confirmed will be on its streaming service.) So is the Disney Plus streaming service worth paying for? The details that we know so far are below, but basically: If you're a parent or you love Star Wars or Marvel movies, you may find yourself considering yet another subscription before the year is out. Watch this: Everything we know about Disney Plus 1 : 3 8 What's the Disney streaming service? The Disney Plus streaming service will be a competitor to video streaming servicessuch as Netflix, HBO Now and -- later this year -- Apple TV Plus. It's a paid subscription without any advertising, and it gives customers access a vast library of Disney's and Fox's legacy content as well as new, exclusive TV shows, movies and documentaries. Disney wants its other streaming services -- Hulu and sports-focused ESPN Plus -- to run on the same tech platform so you can subscribe to them with the same password and credit card info. Disney plans for all three to be individual subscriptions, but it said it's likely to bundle them at a discount. Hulu will be where Disney streams more adult-oriented fare. For example, Hulu is where a new Marvel collection of grown-up animated series will stream, and it's likely where Deadpool-like content will live now that Disney owns Fox. Hulu will continue to stream content from three of the broadcast networks and its own original series, like The Handmaid's Tale and Castle Rock. (ESPN Plus will, clearly, focus on sports.) Disney Plus will include all of Disney's family-friendly and much of its mass audience fare. It'll have content from Disney proper, Marvel, Lucasfilm (so, Star Wars), Pixar and National Geographic. And, outside those traditional categories, it'll also offer all 30 seasons of The Simpsons, a new feather in its cap from the Fox takeover. When's the release date? Disney Plus will launch on Nov. 12 in the US. The timing is strategically smart. For one, Disney Plus can piggyback on the marketing for all of Disney's big-budget films being released for the holiday season -- Frozen 2 hits theaters Nov. 22 and Star Wars: Episode IX will be released Dec. 20. But Netflix has also shown that the last couple of months of the year is when it tends to get some of its biggest viewership. Bird Box, the movie it says was viewed by more than 80 million accounts in its first month of release, came out Dec. 21. Bright, its fantasy crime flick starring Will Smith, was the company's most-viewed film before Bird Box. It was released Dec. 13. Disney plans to widen Disney Plus globally over two years. How much will it cost? Disney said the service will cost $7 a month, or $70 a year. Its price undercuts Netflix's $13 monthly fee for its most popular plan in the US, which lets you stream to two different devices simultaneously in high definition. Disney Chief Financial Officer Christine M. McCarthy hinted Disney Plus pricing may rise as the service advances, calling the $7-a-month fee an "initial" price. The company also said it's likely to bundle Disney Plus with Hulu and ESPN Plus, offering a discount if you subscribe to two or three of its streaming options. Way back in 2017, Iger noted that the price would reflect the "fact that it will have substantially less volume" than prime competitor Netflix. As Disney has time to funnel more exclusives and originals into Disney Plus, it's a good bet the company will start tapping its price incrementally higher. The Clone Wars is getting a new season, exclusively on Disney's upcoming streaming service. Disney/Screenshot by Bonnie Burton/CNET How can I stream it? Disney Plus will support streaming to phones, tablets, computers, connected TVs and streaming media boxes, the company said. Disney specifically called out support for Roku TVs and the Playstation 4. Its presentation slides included photos of Chromecast, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV, but the company hasn't specifically confirmed those devices yet. Generally speaking, though, Disney's goal is to have wide device support for Disney Plus by the service's November launch. Disney told CNET that Disney Plus will be able to stream 4K and HDR content, but it hasn't specified which titles, how much or whether those higher-quality formats will cost extra. It also hasn't specified how many simultaneous streams are allowed on a single account. Shows and movies: What will I be able to watch? Disney Plus will include content from the Disney brand itself, Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars and National Geographic. It'll also integrate programming from Fox -- all 30 seasons of The Simpsons will be on Disney Plus starting on day one, and more titles like The Sound of Music, The Princess Bride and Malcolm in the Middle will join it in the first year. Disney Plus will be the only place you can stream all of Disney's theatrically released movies starting with Captain Marvel at launch and the rest of its 2019 slate later on. Frozen 2, for example, will be streamable on the service next summer after its theatrical release in November. Disney Plus will also house the entire film libraries of Pixar, Star Wars and its Signature Series and Disney Vault lines of classic hand-drawn animated movies. (Think Bambi, The Lion King, Snow White and so on.) And of course, the company is developing a big slate of original, exclusive shows and movies for the service. Major originals include The Mandalorian, a big-budget series starring Pedro Pascal about a bounty-hunting gunfighter that takes place five years after the events in The Return of the Jedi. A Star Wars prequel series based on Rogue One will star Diego Luna, who played Cassian Andor in the original movie. And Disney has three live-action series drawing the stars of its blockbuster Avengers movies into their own shows: a Loki series featuring Tom Hiddleston; The Falcon and The Winter Soldier with Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan, and WandaVision with Elizabeth Olsen in her role of Scarlet Witch and Paul Bettany reprising The Vision. Disney Plus will have original documentaries, reality shows, competition series, behind-the-scenes features, nature and adventure titles, animated programming -- the list goes on. Even though all of Disney's movies will stream exclusively on Disney Plus, the company doesn't plan to debut any of its big-budget motion pictures on the service. That's what's known as a day-and-date approach, which releases most of its films on big screens and on its streaming service at the same time, and it was Netflix's strategy for years. Disney, however, plans for all its theatrical films like Star Wars and Marvel to run their course in theaters and home video before making them available with a digital subscription. CNET also has a comprehensive list of all the shows and movies expected on Disney Plus. How will this affect Disney stuff on Netflix? Disney will mostly disappear from Netflix by late 2019. Since 2016, Netflix has been the first place to watch Disney's movies with a subscription. That deal meant Netflix was the go-to place for the biggest US blockbusters of the last three years. The top two movies of 2017 and the top three movies of 2016 and 2018 were all from Disney, and Netflix has been the place to binge them all. But Disney decided against renewing that Netflix deal as it plotted its own competitor. Starting with Disney's 2019 slate of movies, all those films are destined for Disney Plus. That means Captain Marvel, the first movie Disney released theatrically in 2019, will be the first movie Netflix misses out on. It also means that Mary Poppins Returns should be the final Disney movie that will have some type of release window on Netflix. Netflix's Marvel Defenders shows are complicated, though. Netflix has put out five original series based on Defenders characters in partnership with Disney. In 2018, Netflix canceled three of them: Daredevil, Luke Cage and Iron Fist. Then in 2019, Netflix canceled the last two: The Punisher and Jessica Jones. Kevin Mayer, the Disney executive in charge of Disney Plus, has said Disney Plus could possibly revive the canceled shows. But the terms of their original deal could restrict Disney Plus from any revivals until 2020, according to a report. A third, and now final, season of Jessica Jones is still set to arrive on Netflix sometime in 2019. But after that, all we know about the future of these characters is Marvel Television chief Jeph Loeb teasing fans that the characters will continue in some form. But the only thing for sure about that form right now: It won't involve Netflix. What shows and movies do you want to appear on Disney's streaming service? Pop them into the comments section and we'll keep updating this post with more information as it becomes available.