The Walt Disney Company had quite a year in 2019, from closing its acquisition of 21st Century Fox in March to opening its giant Galaxy’s Edge attraction at Disney World in August to launching its Disney+ streaming service in November, all adding up to a strong case for Company of the Year. But that honor for 2019 went to Target, which made major gains in e-commerce and profit margins, and saw its stock rise 95% this year.
Negotiating with George Lucas was not as easy. Lucas originally wanted “the Pixar deal,” Iger wrote this year in his book “The Ride of a Lifetime.” But there was no way Iger was paying $7 billion for Lucasfilm: “We already sensed Lucasfilm was potentially quite valuable for us, but it wasn’t worth $7.4 billion,” he wrote in his book. Pixar had six movies already in production when Disney bought it, plus a staff of engineers, writers, directors, and animators.
But 2019 may have been an outlier. “2019 was like the 100-year flood at the box office for Disney,” says Comscore media analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “It’s going to be tough to live up to that... The pie will be more evenly distributed in 2020, with other studios able to make their mark. I think the wealth will be more evenly distributed among all the studios. Disney is always going to be a factor, but 2019 was just a crazy year for that company.
Disney closed its Fox deal in March, just in time to get a boatload of Fox content onto its Disney+ service for its November launch. Buying Fox also gave Disney full control of Hulu, and it will cleverly keep Hulu alive by moving all FX shows to Hulu, thereby branding it as the home for Disney-owned adult content , separate from the fuzzier, family-friendly Disney+ library.
Iger has said on many earnings calls, and writes in his book, that BAM Tech will be the engine driving everything Disney does in streaming in the next decade. He has also declared that Disney’s direct-to-consumer content strategy is the company’s “number one priority” now. Taken together, that makes BAM Tech maybe the most important acquisition Iger has made. Before Disney, BAM Tech was renowned in the industry for powering the streaming of not just MLB but also WWE, HBO, PGA Tour, and more.
ESPN+ allowed Disney to test the OTT waters, before rolling out Disney+ in November. Now it’s offering a $12.99 bundle of ESPN+, Disney+, and Hulu with ads.