From “A Worrisome Circumstance” (May 2023):

“As I think about the ‘logical progression’ for Disney DTC, a single platform strikes me as a superior strategy for driving discovery and engagement… The way to incentivize subscription and usage of a bundle / consolidated app that has high-value content for everybody in the family is pricing; super fans with a narrow interest in sports, Marvel or Star Wars, etc., should be paying a significant premium for the a la carte offering - in my mind, much more than they’re being charged currently. This is a long-term journey for Disney, particularly as it relates to marquee sports rights. They’ve already started down this road, but it’s now clear they will need to move more quickly - particularly given the accelerated pace of pay-TV subscriber losses. (They have 20.0 million three service / trio subs, up from 16.8 million a year ago; that number should be, and really needs to be, much higher over time.)”

Two things have now become clear: (1) Management has come around on the logic of the single platform product strategy; and (2) their DTC pricing architecture is undergoing a meaningful evolution.