Walt Disney senior executives are discussing how to unify the company\u2019s disparate mobile apps and turn its streaming service into the first stop for all things Disney, a place where users can book park tickets, buy merchandise, play games and watch movies, according to people familiar with the matter.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Disney\u2019s new CEO, Josh D\u2019Amaro, is attempting to break silos within the company and simplify how customers interact with its brand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new app would marry Disney+ with mobile platforms such as the Disneyland Resort and Disney Cruise Line Navigator apps into what\u2019s internally being described as a \u201csuper app,\u201d said the people, who asked not to be named as the information is private.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The conversations are at an early stage and no concrete steps have been taken toward developing the product, the people said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, the ambition has been at the centre of internal presentation materials, and is indicative of the potential D\u2019Amaro sees in evolving the company\u2019s direct-to-consumer business, the people said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A spokesperson for Disney declined to comment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The company has long flirted with the idea of creating a super app for all things Disney or even a membership program akin to Amazon.com Inc.\u2019s Prime service. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
D\u2019Amaro\u2019s predecessor Bob Iger toyed with the idea for more than a decade, even testing a less comprehensive version in the UK.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Disney has released more apps in recent years, the company has periodically revisited whether to combine them. The ambition never gained traction due to logistical setbacks, the people said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Disney is currently working on merging its Hulu online video platform with Disney+, which has faced obstacles due to their separate tech infrastructure and programming rights, the people said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
D\u2019Amaro, who succeeded Iger as CEO in March, is keen to revisit the idea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He told shareholders at the company\u2019s annual meeting that month that \u201cDisney+ will continue to evolve beyond a traditional streaming service to become the digital centrepiece of our company \u2013 a portal that connects our stories, experiences, games, films, and more in entirely new ways.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
D\u2019Amaro serves as a board observer at Epic Games, the video game publisher behind\u00a0Fortnite.<\/em>\u00a0He recently restructured Disney to more closely marry games and entertainment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Disney has also been exploring more investment in user-generated content and artificial intelligence.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n That ambition faced a setback later in March when OpenAI Inc. abruptly shut down its Sora text-to-video generator, collapsing a $1 billion deal Disney had signed with the company to grant users access to roughly 200 characters and allow them to create their own content for Disney+. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Disney is scheduled to report its first quarterly earnings under D\u2019Amaro on May 6. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Walt Disney senior executives are discussing how they can make Disney+ a one-stop shop for streaming, park ticket sales, online merchandise shopping, and gaming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":612838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[43182,12857,104960,73078,101581,83469,62312,10878],"class_list":["post-644820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-bob-iger","tag-disney","tag-josh-damaro","tag-super-apps","tag-the-walt-disney-company","tag-video-streaming-apps","tag-video-streaming-services","tag-walt-disney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644820"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644820"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":644827,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644820\/revisions\/644827"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}