GLOBAL GROWTH
Executives said they see opportunities to take its ESPN+ sport streaming video service to Latin America and are looking into international expansion of its Hulu streaming video business, which offers movies and shows targeted to adults.
Disney also forecast Hulu's subscribers to reach 40 million to 60 million by fiscal 2024 and reach profitability in the United States by either 2023 or 2024. Hulu currently has 25 million subscribers and is expected to lose $1.5 billion in the current fiscal year.
The digital push is Disney's response to cord-cutting, the dropping of cable service that has hit its ESPN sports network and other channels, and the rise of Netflix Inc. The Silicon Valley upstart has amassed 139 million customers worldwide since it began streaming 12 years ago.
Disney will join the market at a time when audiences are facing a host of choices, and monthly bills, for digital entertainment. Apple, AT&T Inc's WarnerMedia and others plan new streaming services.
To bolster its potential digital portfolio, Disney recently purchased film and TV assets from Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox and gained prized properties such as "Avatar."
Disney had been supplying new movies such as "Black Panther" and "Beauty and the Beast" to Netflix after their runs in theaters but ended that arrangement this year to feed its own streaming ambitions. The company estimated it is foregoing $150 million in licensing revenue this fiscal year by saving programming for its own platforms.
The Disney+ programming will draw in part from Disney's deep library of classic family films. It also will include exclusive original content such as a live-action "Star Wars" series called "The Mandalorian," a show focused on Marvel movie villain Loki, and animated "Monsters at Work," inspired by hit Pixar movie "Monsters Inc."
Some new Disney movies, such as a "Lady and the Tramp" remake, will go directly to the Disney+ app. Other new releases will appear on Disney+ after their run in theaters and after they cycle out of the home video sales window, executives have said.
