Why Disney Says It Doesn't Need Data To Produce Great Content

Disney believes that Netflix and others rely too much on data and not enough on creative instincts borne of experience. It will plumb the knowledge of its talent and executives as well as what the data may prescribe.

This could be a realistic assessment of the state of the entertainment market - or arrogance driven by the early popular embrace of Disney+. No one has made money betting against Disney of late, but neither has anyone ever prospered by ignoring business cycles. JL


Emily Stewart reports in Vox:

Disney is relying on its leaders’ creative instincts much more than data. It’s going to consider what the data predicts will play best with audiences but it won’t be overly reliant on metrics. “We might not follow the data We might have creative ideas that don’t fit where the data would point you, so we’re going to use both our judgment or ideas we have, the capacities we have that tells us what to make. It’s a “fallacy” that data can and should be used to make minute-by-minute creative choices. “Creative processes don’t yield to that sort of analytical look." Implicit  is how heavily Netflix has relied on data in its programming choices

When it comes to deciding what shows and films to create for its new Disney+ streaming service, Disney is relying on its leaders’ creative instincts much more than it’s considering data points.

That’s what Kevin Mayer, chairman of direct-to-consumer and international at Disney, told Recode’s Peter Kafka at the 2019 Code Media conference in Los Angeles, one week after the launch of Disney+. The service debuted with an expansive library that includes its Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars catalogs, as well as a handful of new and exclusive movies and shows. It’s gradually going to build out its offerings, and it plans to do so prudently. It’s going to consider what the data predicts will play best with audiences — but it won’t be overly reliant on these metrics.

“We might not always follow the data,” Mayer told Kafka. “We might have great, creative ideas that don’t fit right into where the data would point you to make a program, so we’re going to use both our judgment or the ideas we have in place, the capacities that we have in place, and the data that tells us what to make. Certainly, we will be paying attention to that.”

Mayer said he believes it’s a “fallacy” that data can and should be used to make minute-by-minute creative choices. “Creative processes fundamentally don’t yield to that sort of analytical look,” he said.

Implicit in Mayer’s remarks is how heavily Netflix, a pioneer in the streaming space, has relied on data in its programming choices and the shortcomings of this approach. Measures such as Nielsen ratings, box office hauls, and focus groups, which media companies like Disney have long relied on, already inform them about what does and doesn’t resonate with their audiences.

As digital media executives Matthew Ball and Alex Kruglov recently explained on Recode, even Netflix has started to move away from such data-driven creative decisions:

Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos has begun to change his tune. In 2015, he admitted that data represented only 70 percent of the decision process, with the judgment 30 percent “coming on top.” In 2018, this had inverted to 70 percent gut, 30 percent data. By 2019, it was 80/20.

Of course, Disney has decades of experience in figuring out what works in entertainment — something Mayer noted on Tuesday. “We make programs that are super popular, so I think we have a good finger on the pulse of what consumers like — or actually love,” he said.

That’s not to say that Disney has all the advantages. Netflix is ahead in terms of the scale of its multinational video quality, and it has a more solid infrastructure

in place. “They’ve been doing this a long, long time at a big scale,” Mayer said, though he added he believes Disney “has the best content on the planet.”

“I think we each will end up looking like each other to some degree,” he said of the Disney-Netflix dynamic.

To get there, Disney will need to perfect its technology. On Tuesday, Mayer assured Kafka that the technical issues Disney+ experienced last week when it launched were the result of a “technical detail” in the architecture of the app, rather than a broader structural issue. He added that Disney also experienced some “customer service issues” that compounded the situation.

In the end, Disney’s technical difficulties didn’t seem to matter that much to customers. The day after Disney+ launched, the company said 10 million people had signed up for the service.