During today’s 2017 fourth-quarter Disney earnings call, the Management team highlighted many of the business successes and challenges over the quarter (and fiscal year) for the company.
Among the news of the previously announced Disney streaming service, Bob Iger revealed that a Monsters-themed television series will be in development for inclusion in the streaming service.
Although no specific date was announced for the show’s launch, the two-tiered streaming service is planned to launch in 2018 and 2019. In the Spring of 2018, an ESPN-branded service called “ESPN Plus” will launch streaming a plethora of sporting events and content.
In late 2019, the Disney-branded service (currently unnamed) will launch and will include feature film and television content from Pixar, Disney, Star Wars, and Marvel. In addition, Mr. Iger noted that four to five original feature-length films will be produced by the company annually and will be exclusive to the service.
Along with the exclusive feature-length content, the service will also include many television series as well — with a Star Wars live-action series already in development, a High School Musical series, a Marvel-themed series, and the aforementioned (and very exciting) Monsters-franchise series.
Of course, we don’t know what timeline the show will take place in (Monsters University, Monsters Inc., or another timeline altogether), but all we can say is that it would be wonderful if Billy Crystal and John Goodman could still voice Mike and Sulley respectively as this would bring a lot of authenticity to the show.
During the Question-and-Answer section of the call, Bob Iger offered some additional insights about the streaming service:
- Comparing this to Netflix, Bob noted that the cost at launch would be a “significantly lower” price than Netflix simply because the amount of content would be less than Netflix’s offering. Bob also noted that the price would increase as the quantity of content likewise increased.
- It was also noted that although the ESPN Plus service will have ad-content inserted, it is not planned to include advertisements in the Disney-branded streaming service.
- He noted that the Direct-to-Consumer streaming service is Disney’s top priority next year.
- The services will be highly customizable to allow parents to filter based on preferred age restrictions and personal preference.
So, what are your thoughts regarding the service — but more importantly, what are your thoughts on a Monsters-themed television series? Will Mike proudly be uttering, “I can’t believe it…I’m on TV again!”? Leave a comment below or chat about it with other Pixar fans in the newly created TV-Series category on the Pixar Post Forum.
UPDATED: It should be noted (since we’ve received clarifying questions) that Bob Iger stated that this will be a series for the “popular Pixar Monsters franchise” and did not explicitly say that it will be Monsters, Inc. themed.
