Last week, Disney hosted a special APAC Showcase event in Singapore, where it highlighted many of the upcoming originals heading to Disney+ (and Hulu in the US) in the year ahead, including “Light Shop”, “Disney Twisted-Wonderland The Animation” and “The Murky Stream“.

Since the return of Bob Iger as Disney’s CEO and the massive shift from focusing on gaining new subscribers to profitability from streaming, we’ve seen Disney drastically cutting back on the amount of original content it creates.  Saving billions of dollars in production costs and a shift from quantity to quality. 

This hasn’t just impacted the number of shows and films being created in Hollywood; it’s also had a global impact on Disney’s output, as it is making original programming across Latin America, Europe, and Asia, but in every country, we’ve seen Disney pulling back on how many original shows it creates internationally.

Disney has also drastically scaled back where it spends its money on original programming, depending on the local needs.  In Asia, Disney has prioritised making original content in Japan and Korea.   It also helps that content from these countries, such as K-dramas and Japanese anime, is popular with international audiences, making this new content even more valuable.

There has also been a shift within Disney to try to become a more premium streaming service, rather than just churning out as much content as possible, focusing on quality over quantity.

Recently, Carol Choi, Disney’s Executive Vice-President for APAC, Original Content Strategy, recently spoke with Deadline about how Disney+ is changing internationally.

“As the market and the Disney+ service continue to evolve, we continue to evaluate where we should focus our efforts and for the lack of a better term, get most bang out of our buck.  If you look at our Southeast Asia product offering, we’ve pivoted. It used to be a mass strategy, just to grab market share. Over the last three years since we launched, we’ve slowly increased our price to now become a more premium service, in order for us to continue to build up the base to what Disney+ is as a service.”

Choi added that Disney+ had “moved to a pricing level that matches the type of product that we’re offering” and that once it gets to “the next stage,” she will evaluate what sort of investment would continue to expand the subs base. “The last couple years were like an adjustment period and we’ve had some great results, so we know that there is demand for it. It’s just whether we have the business model that warrants it.”

Disney+ already has an ad-supported tier in many countries from North America and Europe, but it doesn’t look like there will be one in Asia for a while.

“Asia is particularly difficult because the markets are so different, so there can’t be one consistent strategy — especially when you look at the basics of growth, whether there is a cable business, where advertisers are spending, and whether it’s efficient for us to offer an ad tier.”

In December, ESPN on Disney+ will launch in the United States; however, when asked about the future of sports within Asia on Disney+, Choi wasn’t giving away any plans.

“We’re not ready to have a specific position on that right at this moment.  In Asia, we know that the first step to try to solidify our base is through local content.”

Roger’s Take: Over the past five years, Disney+ has gone through some major changes, as it’s moved from its initial launch, an international rollout, the introduction of Star, then advertising etc.  During that time, there’s been lots of teething issues and a complete strategic change within the company.  But Korean and Japanese originals continue to be very important, not just because of their local impact, but because audiences around the world are enjoying them, which is why we are seeing Disney doubling down on this even more and I don’t think that’s going to be changing for a while.

What do you think of Disney’s plan for Asia?  Let me know on social media!

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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