Since his high-profile departure from FX, Disney TV Studios chief Eric Schrier has become actively involved with shaping the Disney+ APAC content slate through his other mandate as president of Disney’s global original television strategy.
He and APAC original content head Carol Choi sat down with Deadline at the Disney APAC Showcase in Hong Kong this week, bullishly revealing the coming years for Disney+ in Asia would see it “laser focused on Korea and Japan.” They also addressed whether ESPN+ and local live sports offerings would land on the platform in the region.
When Schrier started his assessment of Asia, his goal was to sharpen the focus of the slate. “We really evaluated, as we were just making content all over the place and were not really strategically focused,” Schrier tells Deadline.
He quickly put into place a “local-for-local” strategy and urged a big push for Korean content, which had been in the spotlight globally and, in his words, “travels really well throughout the region.”
With his plan now two years in, and Disney+ well-established in Asia, plans are now to bolster the streamer’s unscripted slate, cross-medium adaptations and Japanese live-action shows. Schrier said there will also be more shows in genres such as travel and romance that appeal to female viewers.
“Looking at manga and webtoons in Japan and Korea, and anime, we’ve done really well in Korea with intense male shows,” says Schrier, referring to a swathe of action series like The Worst of Evil, Light Shop and Big Bet. “We are starting to broaden out into more female-appealing shows, especially the Korean genres that have a more female appeal to them like travel and romance.”
He cited fantasy series The Remarried Empress as an example of this new direction. Based on a webtoon, the romantic fantasy starring Shin Mina (Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha), Ju Jihoon (Light Shop), Lee Jongsuk (Big Mouth) and Lee Seyoung (The Red Sleeve) follows an empress, whose husband shocks her one day when he returns home with his mistress and demands a divorce.
Choi says: “We’ve definitely expanded some of the genres in shows that we’ll be introducing this year. We’re getting into more fantasy romance-type of genres in Korea, and expanding to more unscripted shows. Not all unscripted shows are [going to be] introduced here, but that’s something that we’re looking and expanding into.”
Bolstering investment in Japanese live action and animation
While Korea has been the poster child of Disney+’s APAC slate in recent years, Schrier and Choi are staunchly committed to Japan as a major recipient of investment. Locally, they work alongside Gaku Narita, Executive Director for Original Content Production and Development at Disney Japan, and this past June met with numerous producers in the country to assess the lay of the land.
“I’m very intrigued about what’s happening in Japan,” says Schrier. “Japanese live-action programming hasn’t really taken off yet. There’s a really great hotbed of creativity there that is untapped, and it’s a good market for us, for Disney+, so we want to grow it.”
So how has the content mix shifted from 2024 to this year? Choi points to a special focus on that tricky-to-find Japanese live-action, along with unscripted shows and cross-medium adaptations.
“The heritage of storytelling is so rich in Japan, and we are also excited to see a lot of cross-medium [adaptations], from games to shows to manga,” she says. “There’s just a lot of opportunity there. With a lot of established IPs, there’s already fandom. Whether it’s from one medium to another, or a kind of adaptation of manga-based IP, those are a lot of areas that we want.”
When we ask about Disney+’s other top-priority market in Asia-Pacific, beyond Korea and Japan, Schrier picks Australia, which he calls “a huge market for us,” adding: “The U.S. content travels very well there.” He highlights Disney+ originals coming out of Australia like The Artful Dodger, which will debut its second season soon. Streaming content quotas set to be introduced to the country, and we’ll see if this impacts the plan.
Schrier also points out that the Disney+ business is well-complemented by ESPN sports offerings in Australia. “We have our sports business there,” he adds. “The ESPN sports business is really strong. We just launched ESPN as part of Disney+, and that’s proven to be a really big success for us.”
ESPN and the future of sports on Disney+
As for whether the ESPN+ sports tile will launch in other territories in APAC besides Australia and New Zealand, Choi responds in the negative. “It was the most natural to launch first with Australia and New Zealand, because we have some of the best sports rights and the ESPN business there, as well as a large sports fan base that marries with the rights that we have,” adds Choi.
The main challenge about the APAC sports rights market? Choi says that the region’s market is rather “fragmented,” with some soccer leagues working well in a few countries, and baseball being the sport of choice for others. “We are constantly looking at what’s available and where the market is mature enough to integrate sports into our offering,” says Choi.
While Schrier remains tight-lipped on what future sports rights the streamer is exploring in the region, he hints that there will announcements coming soon. “You’ll see us opportunistically get into some sports in some local territories,” says Schrier. “We have that capability in live sports, so on a global basis, we’re looking at sport in an opportunistic way where it can complement what we’re trying.”
Hulu, now an international tile for Disney+, will also bring a new dynamic to the platform’s content strategy outside the U.S.
Iger said on Disney’s earnings call today: “As Hulu replaces the Star tile on Disney+ in markets outside the U.S., we are expanding our international reach by investing strategically in our own originals and working with local studios to license content that brings more high-quality local storytelling to the platform. We are taking a disciplined approach to the markets we are prioritizing, and we have confidence in our long-term strategy.”
Leaving the door open for new markets
While Disney+ has sharpened its focus on Korea, Japan and Australia, Schrier leaves the door open for other markets to come into play in future. It was just three years ago that the streamer was busy commissioning in Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia, before pulling back on operations there.
“Great stories can come from anywhere, and there are also creators in various parts of our region,” says Schrier. “How do we bring some of that together, whether it’s a story that may have come from another market that could leverage Korean talents, or filming in different locations? We’re constantly monitoring and seeing where we can have the next breakthrough.”
Choi adds: “We have a lot of free-to-air partnerships. That’s another distinction that we are doing really well across the world, which is that we don’t see Disney+ just as a standalone service that comes into each market and takes over.
“We want to partner with our free-to-air broadcasters and local services, whether it’s co-productions or original content, whether it’s bundling or next-day content that comes off broadcast and goes onto the service. We see our service and other services in each market as complementary, not cannibalistic.”
Citing the example of Korea-Japan series Merry Berry Love, just announced at the Disney APAC Showcase, Choi says that Disney is able to connect creators and content partners across the region and beyond. She says that CJ ENM was looking for distribution partners in the region as well as creative talent in Japan to develop the show. Disney+ was able to step in to connect Korean and Japanese teams, given its existing strategic partnership with local broadcaster Nippon TV.
Parks and merchandise
Shogun fans may be disappointed to hear that there will be no Shogun ride coming to Disneyland anytime soon, with Schrier saying that Disney’s parks and experiences arm is focused on “kids and family,” with Disney+ focused on providing content that’s “complementary to that” for adults.
“I don’t think you’ll see a Shogun ride in Disneyland, but there are aspects where we can partner with the parks in a really big way,” says Schrier. “From a local content standpoint, our shows do very well. There are kids and family products, so we’re trying to make shows that really are complementary in the adult space.”
However, Schrier says that if he could dream up a ride at Disneyland, he would love to make one for Sons of Anarchy. Perhaps he’ll always be an FX guy at heart.