Disney
Once the public face of squeaky-clean, harmless family entertainment, the Walt Disney Corporation has evolved into a widespread conglomerate known as much for the properties it controls as the films it produces. With subsidiaries including Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, National Geographic, A&E, 20th Century Fox, ESPN, Hulu, and Pixar, Disney has a commanding control of some of the world’s most lucrative franchises, plus an extensive library of film and TV classics. Its streaming service Disney+ signals a new interest in controlling its own online distribution, setting aside decades of licensing partnerships. Follow along with The Verge as we look at Disney’s new films and shows, and its strategies for dominating the box office and the streaming dollar.
Jess Weatherbed
Amrita Khalid
BBC will stop using AI in Doctor Who promos.
The marketing team for the longtime sci-fi series halted its use of generative AI for Doctor Who marketing emails following complaints, reports Deadline.
As part of a small trial, marketing teams used generative AI technology to help draft some text for two promotional emails and mobile notifications to highlight Doctor Who programming available on the BBC.
We followed all BBC editorial compliance processes and the final text was verified and signed-off by a member of the marketing team before it was sent. We have no plans to do this again to promote Doctor Who.
Disney Plus’ new X-Men animated series is a throwback to the days when comics adaptations could focus on their own stories instead of cinematic franchises.
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Wes Davis
June the 4th be with you.
Live-action Star Wars show The Acolyte will bring the High Republic era of the franchise to TV for the first time on June 4th.
StarWars.com announced the show’s premiere date with this less-than-subtle bloody lightsaber poster, reading “In an age of light a darkness rises.” Spoooooooky. Also, the site says to expect the series’ official teaser trailer tomorrow.
Charles Pulliam-Moore
All of Sony’s live-action Spider-Man movies are swinging back into theaters.
You can easily watch most of Sony’s live-action Spider-Man movies on Disney Plus if the mood strikes you. But if you’ve been yearning to see Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland’s Peters Parker back on the big screen, you’ll have a shot at catching all eight of the past Spidey films in select theaters beginning April 15th.
David Pierce
If “Hulu for Sports” works, this guy could be the next Disney CEO.
There’s a lot in this Wall Street Journal profile of ESPN boss Jimmy Pitaro. The switch to streaming; the Hulu for Sports plan; the battle over ever-more-expensive sports rights. But the undercurrent here is pretty clear: if ESPN can make all that work over the next couple of years, Pitaro might get Bob Iger’s office. (But that’s a really, really big if.)
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Charles Pulliam-Moore
The cast of X-Men ‘97 want you to feel the hype.
It’s kind of telling how X-Men ‘97’s creator / showrunner Beau DeMayo isn’t featured in this new sizzle reel hyping up the show before its March 20th premiere, but the cast seems pretty excited to be back voicing their iconic roles.
David Pierce
Richard Lawler
ESPN is putting Meta’s Quest Pro headsets to work with today’s animated NHL broadcast.
An alternate game feed on ESPN Plus, Disney Channel, Disney XD, and Disney Plus will present today’s Bruins vs. Penguins matchup as the NHL Big City Greens Classic 2. It goes beyond Nickelodeon’s slime-filled Super Bowl feed by using NHL EDGE positional data and Hawk-Eye optical tracking to turn real action into an animated version.
Sportico explains that to control their animated avatars, commentators have replaced the motion-capture suits they wore for the first game with Meta Quest Pro headsets.
Emma Roth
Some Spectrum customers now get ESPN Plus for free.
Charter’s Spectrum TV Plus customers can now access ESPN Plus (which usually costs $10.99 / month) with their cable subscription. It’s all part of the bundle Charter announced with Disney last year, which also brought Disney Plus to Spectrum customers in January.
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Inside Out 2 is about to teach an entire generation of kids what ennui is.
Pixar’s first Inside Out film led with a cast of emotions most young viewers could probably identify as things they’d experienced themselves. But Inside Out 2’s introduction of feelings like Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos), seems primed to leave teens with a new way of articulating that dreadful, existential je ne sais quoi they’re always feeling.
The film hits theaters on June 14th.
Sean Hollister
Disney’s Star Tours ride is adding bits from Ahsoka, Andor and The Mandalorian.
Disney Imagineering tells us the ride will now have more than 250 different variations, up from... well, it depends:
Currently, there are reported to be 4 opening segments, 5 primary destination segments, 7 hologram segments, and 5 ending destination segments which can be combined in different ways, while still taking into account the separation of different eras of the Lucasfilm portfolio.
Grogu and company will be added on April 5th at Disneyland, Disney World, and Disneyland Paris.
Quentyn Kennemer
“If you build it great, they will come.”
At the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in San Francisco, Disney CEO Bob Iger summarized his gameplan for Marvel and Disney movies to get more butts into theater seats, as reported by Deadline:
“A lot of people think it’s audience [superhero] fatigue. It’s not audience fatigue. They want great films. And if you build it great, they will come,” he said. He noted that has made nearly $30 billion from 33 films. “We got to return to something akin to that. And I actually am confident that we will.”
A string of bad superhero movies certainly isn’t helping, though, even if they aren’t all from Disney.
Charles Pulliam-Moore
The Eras Tour’s big Disney Plus debut is almost here.
We’re just a few days out from the Disney Plus debut of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour concert film, but in case the March 14th premiere somehow slipped your mind, there’s a new trailer to get you hyped back up.
Emma Roth
Fubo CEO calls the company’s sports streaming legal battle “a duel to the death.”
Fubo sued Warner Bros. Discovery, ESPN, and Fox last month over their planned live sports streaming service. Here’s what Fubo CEO David Gandler had to say about the lawsuit during a conference call:
This is a duel to the death. It has been when we started this company. We’re fighting for consumers. We’re fighting for our customers. We’re fighting for the tens of billions of dollars that are wasted annually on consumers paying for the same content multiple times. This is a very important process. We are sticking to our principles, to our guns. We are continuing to walk and chew gum at the same time, as you see in our numbers.
Andrew Webster
Wes Davis
In 2023, everyone was shopping around on streaming services.
That’s according to data analytics firm Antenna, which reported that streaming subs grew year-over-year in 2023 — albeit more slowly than previous years — but cancellations were up by 36.2 million versus 2022, and weren’t far behind the number of new subscribers.
That much churn isn’t surprising, given all the rate hikes and crackdowns on password sharing.
Wes Davis
Are you ready for an “ESPN-branded experience” in Horizon Worlds?
ESPN will start feeding VR content to the Meta Quest Xtadium app soon. That includes “immersive 180-degree VR” sports highlights from NCAA basketball and football games, interviews, and other content.
ESPN also says it will launch a Meta Horizon Worlds experience this summer. Whatever it is, it’s bound to make more sense than the ESPN phone.
Emma Roth
The sports streaming super app might face DOJ scrutiny.
The Department of Justice is planning to review the upcoming sports streaming app from ESPN, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Fox, according to a report from Bloomberg. Sources tell the outlet that regulators will look into whether the service will harm consumers, competitors, and sports leagues once the joint venture is finalized.
One live streaming service, Fubo, has already slammed the sports streaming app, saying it “could dictate market terms in a manner that may not serve the broader interests of consumers.”
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Wes Davis
Star Wars spinoff The Acolyte gets a narrowed-down release window.
The show, originally pitched by showrunner Leslye Headland as “Frozen meets Kill Bill,” will be out in Summer 2024, according to Collider. Disney had previously only confirmed it as coming this year.
Andrew Webster
Richard Lawler
The real standalone ESPN streaming channel will launch in the fall of 2025.
Disney CEO Bob Iger had previously targeted next year for the launch of a streaming version of ESPN’s main channel (no watered-down ESPN Plus, just ESPN).
Now that the deal for a sports streaming Voltron with Warner Bros. and Fox is sewed up, Iger said to CNBC’s Julia Boorstin that direct-to-consumer ESPN could launch in late August 2025, and confirmed to investors that it will be available in a bundle with Hulu and Disney Plus.
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