Disney APAC Content Chief Carol Choi On Disney+’s Premium Streaming Pivot, Live Sports Rights & Korea’s Ongoing Influence

deadline.com:

After pulling back on original content production in Southeast Asia and doubling down on efforts in Korea and Japan over the past year, Disney+ is focused on creating a premium service in Asia, instead of a mass one.

That’s according to Carol Choi, Disney’s Executive Vice-President for APAC (ex-India), Original Content Strategy, who has spoken exclusively to Deadline about her plans for the streamer, which first launched in the region three years ago as part of the global Disney+ rollout.

Since then, the streamer reset and Disney’s focus on profit over subs progress has changed Choi’s focus. “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,” she said. “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 said 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.