- Both Apple TV Plus and Disney Plus,
launched a few weeks ago.
But despite both launching with roughly the same amount
of new, original TV shows, the only thing
people can talk about is Baby Yoda.
(baby cooing)
- This is what was causing all the fuss?
- [Julia] "The Mandalorian" is easily the most
talked about show right now.
Every week, Disney releases a short and sweet
jolt of Star Wars action directly to our TV sets.
We can wake up early every Friday morning
and catch up with the Mandalorian
and his adorable sidekick, Baby Yoda.
- [Mandalorian] Bone broth for the little one.
- Twitter is full of gifs, memes are running rampant
and Disney Plus stays in the weekly conversation
about being the next thing you must absolutely watch.
Apple TV Plus doesn't have this for any of its' shows.
"The Morning Show" fizzled out,
no one is talking about "See"
and Dickinson's fandom is contained to a corner of Tumblr.
Even Disney's other series aren't garnering
too much attention.
Like "The World According to Jeff Goldblum"
and "High School Musical: The Musical: The Series".
Yes, that is the actual title.
"The Mandalorian" is an absolute win for Disney.
As the streaming service catapults to the front
of people's must have subscriptions.
It's also prime example of Disney using Disney Plus
to recreate event television in the streaming age.
And sell you as many t-shirts as possible along the way.
(upbeat techno music)
Of the 10 million people who signed up
for Disney Plus on launch day,
at least 2.1 million watched "The Mandalorian".
Research shows it's also the most in demand show
across the U.S. on any platform.
There are entire podcasts dedicated to breaking down
every episode and recapping each moment
is a full time job for entertainment writers again.
It's what critics call event television.
A show that makes everything and everyone
suddenly stop in order to watch.
Whether that's "Game of Thrones" on Sunday nights
or calling in sick the day a new season
of "Stranger Things" drops on Netflix.
The big difference between "Game of Thrones"
and "Stranger Things" was how people watched it.
And it gave us a look at how streaming
could differ from cable.
"Game of Thrones" was a weekly event.
This most recent season was a six-week affair
that kept people talking about the show
for nearly two months straight.
"Stranger Things" happens all at once.
Excitement tends to die down after two or three weeks.
Basically, after people have binged it.
Meanwhile, "Game of Thrones" was pulling in viewers weekly
and kept those viewers.
Boasting record numbers for it's finale.
For a long time, "Stranger Things" existed as an example
of what event television could look like
in the streaming age.
"The Mandalorian" is a shake-up.
Disney, echoing TV's more traditional formula
is releasing its' Disney Plus episodes weekly.
The company could release all of its' episodes at once
but in doing so, risks having "The Mandalorian"
be another show that people binge
and forget about a week later.
Instead, and this is the important bit,
Disney is using the show as a launch pad
for other holiday sales.
Think of Disney Plus as an add-on for the company.
Former Amazon Studios analyst, Matthew Ball
noted that if companies actually want to make money,
subscription streaming shouldn't even be your real business.
Look at "The Mandalorian".
The show offers endless merchandising opportunities.
Disney, a company whose films help propel
theme park attractions and cruise lines,
knows this game better than most studios.
(orchestra playing)
Right now, "The Mandalorian" is tantalizing enough
that it keeps people interested
and more importantly, keeps them subscribed.
Using Baby Yoda as incentive isn't something
Disney's gonna be able to do,
every single month going forward though.
So, what happens after "The Mandalorian" ends
and Baby Yoda disappears from the weekly discourse?
Kevin Mayer, head of Disney's Direct-to-Consumer division
actually spoke about this exact issue
at a recent conference.
- There's a lead time to create really high quality,
original programming.
So we have them coming on in a cadence
that we think is the right cadence.
We do have more originals that are coming out,
at D23 we announced three or four Marvel series
that are going to start coming out in several months.
- Beginning in 2020, Disney will use its Marvel shows
to play into its' big franchise films.
And then let's look at 2021.
Marvel has four movies that will be released in theaters.
Between those releases, there are also several Marvel shows
that will air weekly on Disney Plus.
Some of these shows will also correspond to the events
happening in some of these movies
being released in theaters.
For example, "Wanda Vision", a show that centers
on Scarlet Witch and Vision from the Avengers series
is actually gonna play into Doctor Strange 2,
when those are released in 2021.
Eventually, we're just gonna exist in a non-stop
weekly cycle of Disney marketing.
What it means for us, the people who are subscribed
to Disney Plus or are thinking about it,
is that Disney is gonna want its' streaming service
to be at the center of weekly conversation.
It might not be Baby Yoda in a few months
but there will be something that keeps us talking
about Disney Plus week after week
and probably keeps us subscribed.
Disney isn't the only company trying to keep you subscribed
to their streaming service week after week.
Companies like Apple are doing it too.
To see how they're doing it, watch the first episode
of The Verge, a Streaming Wars series.