Disneyizing Home Entertainment Distribution

This chapter contextualises Disney’s strategic practices for home entertainment, in relation to the company’s broader strategies in the New Disney and contemporary period (from 1984). Coinciding with the growth of home entertainment, these align with shared strategies of media conglomerates with a Hollywood film (and television) studio at their heart: synergy, globalisation, franchising, economies of scope and scale, and exploiting new technologies and revenue streams. I outline how Disney grew on home entertainment, and came to dominate from VHS to Blu-ray, through distinctive practices that differentiated the Disney brand, especially repackaging and repurposing of its animated films. Disney pioneered home video sell-through, forms of cross-promotion, and re-releasing of premium titles. These served to Disneyize home entertainment, through hybrid consumption and branded experiences. I develop how home entertainment was consolidated, boomed, and has been disrupted by shifts in technology and consumer behaviour. Disney’s Studio Entertainment division, like other Hollywood studios, is primarily involved in the distribution business (Balio, 2013: 66). As content provider within a diversified conglomerate, they have adopted a range of practices to maximise profits from home entertainment, as new technologies and revenue streams have developed. Consistently aiming to maintain and grow its market (or distributor) power in relation to these, and the value of its library (particularly its back catalogue, and ongoing slate of new productions). Disney has adjusted to the changing conditions and fortunes of home entertainment, rental and retail, as well as television sales, trying to maximise its distributor share of revenues, across different windows.