Disney are hoping to "excel" when it comes to the Metaverse. Bosses of the media giant have high hopes when it comes to the future of the Mickey Mouse company and where it will fit in when it comes to the digital reality environment, noting that they will continue to cover sporting events with new partner ESPN.
Disney CEO Bob Chapek said during the(DIS) Q1 2022 Earnings Call: "While multiplatform television and streaming will continue to be the foundation of sports coverage for the immediate future, we believe the opportunity for The Walt Disney Company goes well beyond these channels. It extends to sports betting, gaming, and the metaverse.
"We realize that in the future — you can call it what you want, you want to call it metaverse, you want to call it the blending of the physical and digital experiences, which I think Disney should excel at — we realize that it’s going to be less of a passive type experience where you just have playback, whether it’s a sporting event or whether it’s an entertainment offering, and more of an interactive, lean-forward, actively engaged type experience."
It comes just days after streaming service Disney+ trialled a live-stream broadcast with the Academy Award nominations, and a spokesperson for the company claimed that Disney will continue to test the idea of live-streams so the platform can offer the "best experience" to its some 130 million users.
A source told The Verge: "We performed a test for live streaming capabilities on Disney+ in the U.S. with this morning’s Academy Award nominations. We performed a test for live streaming capabilities on Disney+ in the U.S. with this morning’s Academy Award nominations."