Stan CEO Mike Sneesby says Disney+ launch is ‘going to be terrific for everyone’
Tomorrow’s launch of Disney+ will be ‘terrific for everyone’ in the market, according to Stan CEO Mike Sneesby, and isn’t going to hurt the locally-based streaming platform, despite the fact it’s likely to lose its partnership with the international content giant.
Speaking on the Screen Australia podcast, Sneesby said that the figures have shown that of over 1.7m subscribers to Stan, only a very small proportion watch Disney, and none watch only Disney.
Sneesby isn’t worried about the launch of Disney+
“Disney has fantastic content. The brand and franchises on Stan have performed very well, but in the broader scheme of things, they are one in about 100 of our important distributors of first-run content,” Sneesby told Screen Australia.
“In that over 1.7m, only a very small proportion of that base are largely Disney watching. None only watch Disney. It’s a phenomenal brand, phenomenal content, but for us it’s part of a much broader content lineup.
“Disney+ will come into the market, they’ll help to grow the market. It’s going to be terrific for everyone.”
Sneesby said Disney+ only reflects ‘one pillar’ of the content strategy of the Disney business overall, which includes Fox and Marvel properties, and that while he couldn’t say anything yet, he was confident on the future of the relationship between Stan and Disney.
The interview ranged across a variety of topics, including the launch of Stan, in which the business was able to receive a $100m investment and used that to secure important launch partnerships, including with Sony for Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.
“Sony signed a global deal with Netflix for essentially every other market, but they backed us in Australia,” said Sneesby.
Stan’s launch in Australia pre-dated the rise of Netflix in this market, but the writing was already on the wall, says Sneesby, and it was clear this was the future of TV. In fact, Sneesby says, in future, all television will be delivered over the internet.
When Netflix began building its brand here though, it didn’t hurt Stan.
“Consumers will take multiple services. This isn’t like the choice between a mobile phone carrier where you’re locked into one,” said Sneesby.
“When Netflix launched, subscriber run rates lifted to a new level. The whole market lifted.
“Together, we are bringing streaming to Australians.”
But that’s not to say Stan is blind to the content being produced by Netflix. In fact, the business has furthered itself in Australia by filling the gaps left by the international streaming platforms. Stan claims 10% of its content currently is Australian content.
“When you look at our original deals such as No Activity, as much as we are a company that utilises a similar delivery mechanism and product structure as Netflix, [we] make our product as different as possible.
“That’s a key metric our content team has always had, was to ensure minimal duplication between us and Netflix as we buy and create content.
“In terms of No Activity, we commissioned that show a couple of months after we launched the service, we didn’t have any subscribers, but that was symbolic of our plans and getting into original productions.”
Sneesby also talked about the Nine and Fairfax merger, and said nothing has changed inside Stan since. The business was a joint venture between Nine and Fairfax at its launch. He also spoke about the importance of evergreen content, and teased more ‘big classics’ coming to Stan soon, some which have never appeared on streaming services in Australia before. Stan already has favourites including The Office, Will and Grace, Parks and Recreation, and Friends.
Listen to the full chat with Sneesby and the Screen Australia podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or Pocket Casts.
It may not have a massive impact on the existing customer base, but Stan are kidding themselves if they think it won’t impact futher growth and the pace of new sign ups.
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I was a Stan subscriber until Saturday when they ‘lost’ the Disney content which I feel is a big draw card for family usage. Sure they had some other good shows, but none of them are strong enough to justify the subscription outright.
By the way how did they manage to lose that much content when they have an ‘agreement’ until next month? That just baffles me and is terrible business.
Mr. Sneesby is right – Disney wasn’t all I watched, but it was all my infant son watched and ultimately there are only so many services I can subscribe to. Stan will keep a lot of young couples and singles I am sure but I guarantee when families realise they can save about $10 a month and basically have a dedicated kids streaming service, their renewals are going to drop.
I think overall their management of the loss of content is what lost me as a customer – you can’t just delete that much content from your service and not tell your users and expect them to figure it out themselves. The argument that Disney are the overlords and Stan couldn’t have done anything about it is just rubbish – Stan couldn’t have sent an email to let us know what was going on? Maybe highlight alternative shows, let us know what more is coming, maybe make me a reason to give them one more month?
Maybe I am just an angry fat man but I feel like they have misjudged their audience badly over the last 72 hours and they may pay for it from tomorrow (Tuesday) morning.
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Well I can tell you that I currently have Netflix and Stan but am seriously considering changing to Netflix and Disney+. I don’t want 3 services, and there’s certainly less I watch on Stan than on Netflix.
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To be fair, how else could he possibly spin this? I take my hat off to Mr Sneesby for grasping at any semblance of a silver lining, when in reality people are going to be ditching Stan in droves to go to Disney. Keeping Netflix is a no-brainer, it’s table stakes for streaming subscriptions. I think a lot of people will be seeing the arrival of Disney+ as an opportunity to review all their streaming portfolio, with an eye to rationalising it to stay within the family budget. On this basis Amazon will probably suffer a bit too but not as much due to the other Prime bundle products. And Foxtel Now can straight up just [edited under Mumbrella’s comment policy] – it was never in the running due to years of Foxtel’s [edited under Mumbrella’s comment policy] and “you pay for advertising” business model.
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Disney isn’t just Disney Pictures & TV….
It’s Fox Movies, Marvel (Studios), StarWars (Lucas Film), Pixar, Marvel Studios, 20th Century Fox, Fox 2000 Pictures, Fox Searchlight Pictures, ABC (USA) Broadcast, ESPN, Freeform, FX, and National Geographic…
Stan have lost a major content supplier. I’d expect share holder confidence in Nine to drop…
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Ha yep same! Daughter wanted to watch Frozen (for the billionth) time on Saturday and SURPRISE it was gone. Went and deleted Stan on the spot.
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Reminds me of that woeful opinion piece written a few months back about a Stan Disney tie up.
In retrospect it is even more laughable now than the first time I read it.
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Surely there is a typo or Mike misspoke.
Disney is not 1 of a 100 content providers, they ARE the 1 in 100 content providers.
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I’m a guy who lives in a household of 3 men, two in their fifties, one in their forties, none of us now have Stan, (have had previously) but we are chomping at the bit for Disney + it’s what’s not on streaming services at the moment that interests us. And yes we do get to the gym as well – its not all laying on the couch streaming.
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Thanks for that last part – I was very concerned about your lifestyle and wellness!
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Nice attempt at spin, but no one is buying that s**t.
There isn’t enough good, consistent content on STAN, and as a parent of a young child I’m definitely switching from STAN to DISNEY+.
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Disney+ is meant to be a hub for family-friendly content. Sounds like Stan could be the Australian partner for the other parts of the Disney portfolio e.g. Deadpool, Grey’s Anatomy – whatever is on Hulu in the US.
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Subscription rates
When Stan started streaming Disney they increased their monthly rates. Are they going to reduce them now that they have lost Disney? Most likely not. Just another example defying Newton’s theory, that what goes up must come down.
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