Jay Rasulo’s Q&A session is about to begin.
1103 am: The Q&A begins asking about Disney’s strategy Jay rattles off the priorities that have been in place since 2005. Creativity, technology, and international expansion. He says that all of the major acquisitions have been better than they expected. He also says the parks investments have exceeded expectations as well. He says park investments take longer to pay off than films as they are longer term investments. That being said, the investments in the parks have contributed to the bottom line earlier than they expected.
1108 am: The next question is about the easy wins when they acquire something like Marvel and Lucasfilm. Jay says that the licensing of consumer products is the first step. Marvel and Lucasfilm used reps internationally to distribute products. These reps take 25%. Disney has a worldwide distribution network so they don’t need these reps so they are able to get the whole piece of the pie. With Marvel, the big inflection point was the release of Avengers.
1110 am: Next is a question about the Maker Studios investment. Jay says that the acquisition was not about IP, even though they have IP. He says it is an extension of their distribution of their distribution network. They expect to use that network to distribute Disney, Marvel, and Star Wars content.
1113 am: The monetization of that content is focused on selling ads on YouTube. They also have a growing native advertising business.
1114 am: The moderator than asked questions about the growth of cable and ESPN. Jay says they have received a lot of questions about this following their Investor Day at ESPN. Jay says they expect to receive high-single digits operating income growth. He goes on to mention that they expect some cost growth due to higher rights fees and the cost of the World Cup. They also have additional costs associated with the new free-to-air Disney Channel in Germany. These costs are going to be backloaded. A&E, which Disney owns half of, is rebranding their Biography Channel into “FYI”. There will be some marketing costs associated with this rebranding. Despite these costs, they expect ESPN and cable to continue to grow.
1118 am: Speaking on the Disney Channel in Germany transitioning from pay-TV to free-to-air. Disney Channel is an important part of spreading the Disney brand across the globe. They are happy to be on cable where cable penetration is high. In those markets where pay-TV is not as popular they want to be free-to-air. Examples of these markets include Russia and Turkey.
1121 am: Next they talk about Over-the-Top multi-channel providers which both Bob and Jay is coming. When it comes, Disney wants to sell their channels to those providers. They recently signed a deal with Dish for a personal streaming video service, but they think that is a different type of service. They view that as more of an introductory product that is an on-ramp to a broader channel package as the Dish service is a single stream/user service.
1126 am: The moderator asks which of the Parks & Resorts projects has seen the greatest return on investment. Jay says that picking one would be like picking your favorite child. He says that all of their investments have been successful. He mentions that the two new cruise ships were accretive to earnings since day 1. On Disney California Adventure he discusses the need to balance out the guests at the resort by better spreading out the guests between the two parks. This allows more guests to visit the Disneyland Resort while allowing pricing and guest experience to both improve. At Walt Disney World they hadn’t invested in their flagship park in some time. They needed to improve the Magic Kingdom experience. Regarding MyMagic+ they have seen a huge uptick in pre-planning which increases guest spending and satisfaction. 75% of on-property guests are using MyMagic+. 25% of off-property guests are pre-planning with MyMagic+.
1132 am: Disney has reached occupancy levels of 86% at Walt Disney World even though they have added 2,000 rooms with the opening of Art of Animation. This is at pre-recession levels. They have also increased pricing backed by the opening of New Fantasyland.
1135 am: Moving to broadcasting, Jay is asked if the ABC stations and network are still core assets. Jay says they view ABC as a content creation vehicle. Thanks to providers like Netflix, there are additional ways to monetize library content. He does say that ABC needs better shows.
1137 am: Jay is asked if ABC will be getting more sports. He points to the NBA and College Football. He also mentions other live events that ABC airs like the Oscars.
1139 am: Jay describes the Disney Difference. He describes it as spreading their brands through their entire ecosystem while investing in branded creative content. He points to the Avengers where they spent time on individual films before their meet up. Following the Avengers, the solo films have seen better performance.
1142 am: In regards to the film slate, Jay says that their big-budget blockbuster’s will primarily be franchise based. He says that they expect the Studios to perform well with this strategy.
1146 am: The next question is about Bob Chapek who took over Disney Consumer Products. Jay says his hallmarks include focusing on franchises, unlike the traditional way which is to focus on categories (soft lines, toys, hard lines). Chapek also focused on technology based products. Finally, he is focused on finding new business models such as the deal to put mini-Disney Stores in JC Penny stores. Jay says that the Disney Store business is on fire with DisneyStore.com growing substantially.
1149 am: The moderator than asks how big is Frozen. Jay says being the number one animated movie of all time is a good place to start. He says the film has been embraced around the world and by all categories (girls, boys adults). He says the franchise has been a huge lift to the Disney Store. 9 out of the top 10 products at Disney Store are Frozen products. There is a lag in the licensed business, but they expect it to be big at back-to-school and Christmas. He says it will be a part of Disney for a long, long, time.
1152 am: An audience question is why don’t they spin-off the parks business and license their properties to a third party. This question seems to get Jay mad. He says the parks are not a hospitality business, they are an experience business and is deeply integrated with the storytelling of the company.
1157 am: The event has concluded. Thanks for joining us .