Disney plans to shut 100 channels including Star Sports in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong

“We’ll continue to migrate [content] to Disney+, the great majority of that content will migrate to Disney+,” said Disney CEO Bob Chapek

Hyderabad: In a major announcement, Walt Disney CEO Bob Chapek declared that they will shut down 100 cable channels in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong by this year and will shift the focus to Disney+, as their Direct to Consumer story is gaining momentum. The company had closed 30 channels last year.

“We closed 30 channels in fiscal year 2020 or in 2020. We plan to close 100 in 2021,” said Chapek, who was speaking at JPMorgan’s annual Global Technology, Media, and Telecommunications Conference. “We’ll continue to migrate [content] to Disney+, the great majority of that content will migrate to Disney+,” he added. Chapek didn’t make it clear which channels are going to shut.

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Indian scenario

He acknowledged that it required a vastly different approach for Disney in India. “We have an unparalleled collection of entertainment and sports in our Hotstar offering, something we’re really proud of. But India is really a unique market because we have particularly what I’ll call mass-market pricing and distribution,”he said as quoted at the conference.

Shifting Momentum

Last month, Disney announced the closure of 18 channels in the Southeast Asia and Hong Kong region, which will take effect from October 1st this year. The channels which were going to shut are Fox, Fox Crime, Fox Life, FX, and Channel V; movie channels Fox Action Movies, Fox Family Movies, Fox Movies and Star Movies China; sports channels Fox Sports, Fox Sports 2, Fox Sports 3, Star Sports 1, Star Sports 2; kids channel Disney Channel and Disney Junior; factual services Nat Geo People and SCM Legend.

Earlier this month the company announced that, Disney+ has crossed the 103 million mark in paid subscribers.

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