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Disney wants to be more like Netflix...
For the last 3 or 4 years the biggest story in the world of entertainment has been streaming. The old guard of media stood and watched as Netflix's market cap soared past $50bn, $100bn and $200bn in just a few short years.
That rise prompted the rush to streaming. Disney, the global media giant, announced in 2017 they would pull their content from Netflix's platform and build their own (Disney+) — which now boasts more than 100 million subscribers. So in one way, it's easy to frame the last few years as "everyone wants to copy Netflix" but, increasingly, it feels like the other way around.
...and Netflix wants to be more like Disney
Disney gets phenomenal use out of its brands. Famous Disney characters are sold as action figures and toys, they are put on t-shirts and clothing and stickers and books — and of course you can go and meet them in a Disney theme park.
So it was interesting that this week Netflix announced Netflix.shop — the first e-commerce site that will sell official merchandise and apparel related to Netflix original shows and characters. The starting selection is fairly sparse, with some apparel related to anime shows Yasuke and Eden and some items related to hit French crime show Lupin — but over time the collection is expected to expand significantly.
The Netflix theme park?
Selling merchandise online is a step, albeit a small one, towards replicating the sprawling empire of Disney. In theory, Netflix's plan could be to eventually go after physical spaces or experiences, such as theme parks — which (in normal times) are an absolute behemoth of a business in their own right for Disney.
In a year without COVID restrictions or closures, such as 2019, Disney's Parks Experiences & Products division on its own brings in more than $26bn in revenue — which is more than Netflix has ever registered.
A roller coaster through the upside down (Stranger Things), tea with the royal family (The Crown) or a fight with terrifying monsters (The Witcher) — a Netflix theme park based on its original content could certainly have some appeal. In reality though its probably in the "too big" bucket of rejected ideas in the Netflix boardroom. It's one thing to throw up an e-commerce website, it's another to try and a build a rival to places like the Disney Magic Kingdom.
Instead, recent leaks suggest Netflix is more likely to try and get into gaming, or at least more interactive content, in the near future. Video games are a business that Disney hasn't focused much on — preferring to just license out the use of its brands (such as Star Wars) to video game makers.
Despite a strong vaccination programme, the UK has had to put plans for a full re-opening of its economy on hold, as the Delta variant of COVID — first identified in India — has quickly become the dominant variant in the country.
Data from Public Health England reveals how the rise in Delta cases in England has far outstripped any previous variant that has been identified — suggesting it is substantially more transmissible. Estimates currently peg the R0 (reproduction number) for the Delta variant between 5 and 8, compared to an R0 of about 3 for the variant that caused Europe's first wave.
That may sound concerning, but the latest data also suggests that vaccinations are still highly effective at preventing hospitalizations for those who catch the Delta variant. 2 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were found to be 96% effective against hospitalizations for Delta, and 2 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine were found to be 92% effective.
In the US, Delta cases remain more sparse, but are reportedly doubling roughly every 2 weeks. Acknowledging the potential threat from Delta, the CDC labelled the Delta strain a "variant of concern" this week.
1) 41% of employees are considering leaving their employer this year, enabled partly by the ability to now work remotely, according to an interesting study by Microsoft on the future of work.
2) MacKenzie Scott announced yesterday in a blog post that she had given away a further $2.7bn to 286 organizations. Last year she donated $5.8bn in total.
3) Lordstown Motors CEO and CFO resigned on Monday just a week after the company said it could go out of business, sending the shares down more than 10%. The would-be electric vehicle maker is currently accused by research firm Hindenburg Research of faking orders.
4) Recently Masterworks sold their first Banksy work for a 32% return for investors. Explore Masterworks and skip the 35,000 person waitlist today.**
5) The Girl Scouts have 15 million boxes of unsold cookies this year. No prizes for guessing what's to blame.
6) Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin are in Geneva for their highly anticipated first meeting. Putin has a tendency of being late for high profile meetings — he kept the Pope waiting for 50 minutes once — but was on time for this occasion.
**This is a sponsored snack.
