Tony Szameczkowski, one of the architects of Netflix’s pioneering success in the Asia-Pacific region, is now on Disney+.
He arrived last August as Disney’s senior vice president and general manager of direct-to-consumer, Asia Pacific — a role broadly similar to the one he left at Netflix. For most of Disney+’s life in the region, the company has searched for content to build a consistent business at its own pace and in its own style, while Netflix set the upper bounds for what strong streaming growth could look like in the region. However, Disney has recently begun taking steps — including poaching Zameczkowski — suggesting that the pace of its activity in the Asia-Pacific region could accelerate. Its increased investment in K-dramas has yielded some of Disney+’s most welcome surprises for 2026: The perfect crownThe alternative reality romantic comedy series became the largest Korean series to premiere on the platform to date, and its most-watched Korean title to date, with over 43 million hours watched; The shape of reality is the successful fortune teller Battle of Fates It has performed so well that a slate of remakes are being planned across Asia. ESPN has arrived on Disney+ in Australia and New Zealand to much fanfare, and the company has indicated it will spend more aggressively on content in Japan — the most valuable market to reach in the region, and which has been conspicuously slow to expand.
That push has come straight from the top: Josh D’Amaro, in his first earnings call as Disney CEO, highlighted the “meaningful opportunity” overseas and said there will be a deliberate increase in spending on local content, especially in places like Korea. According to regional consultancy Media Partners Asia, Disney recently surpassed Prime Video as the second-largest investor in original content in the Asia-Pacific region.
Before joining Netflix in 2016, Zameczkowski was instrumental in building YouTube’s business in Asia as the company’s Regional Director for YouTube Music. This came after an early period in his career at Warner Bros. Television. International Television in Paris.
In his first business interview in his new role, Zamieczkowski sat down with… Hollywood Reporter On the sidelines of APOS, Asia’s leading media and entertainment summit, to provide an overview of Disney’s current strategy in the streaming sector’s most diverse and fastest-growing key region.
For nearly a decade, I’ve managed partnerships with Netflix in the Asia Pacific region, which have been a key part of the playbook that has helped the company become the streaming leader in the region. Coming to Disney+, what have you brought with you, and what are you intentionally doing differently?
Well, I joined Netflix in 2016, right after Reed Hastings announced it was launching in 130 markets. And you’re absolutely right, partnerships have been a key part of Netflix’s strategy, along with content. But obviously this is still very important for Disney+ as well. You have to get the right distribution, but also the right package with partners. You can rely on your retail offering to attract your discerning fans; But you’re usually targeting the casual fan with the bundle offer. We do this with telecom companies. We also do this sometimes with other broadcasters. A good example of this is the bundle we have with Tving in Korea, where for one price you can get both Tving and Disney+ together. This is also a key part of the strategy, and we want to continue looking for more ways to do this.
Another thing Netflix has done better than most people expected is making local content a core part of the offering across markets. For Disney+, it’s a combination of two things. One is our global intellectual property — Disney owns some of the largest intellectual property in the world — as well as local content. We invest in Korean and Japanese content. Korean content has been an interesting genre because it travels really well. A good example would be The perfect crowna romantic comedy film that achieved great success. It’s a good demonstration of how Korean content can travel on Disney+ – it was the first Korean series to premiere on Disney+. It has nearly 43 million hours watched, which is pretty amazing. It was another Battle of Fatesan unscripted show about fortune tellers, which was a huge hit, and we will also be reproducing it across regions.
But from your point of view, Netflix and Disney are two very different companies, and for us, it’s all about running our own race and recognizing the uniqueness of The Walt Disney Company and the uniqueness of Disney+. I mentioned the big franchises that we have, but there’s also the ecosystem, and that’s something that’s absolutely amazing. It’s not just Disney, but also ESPN, Hulu, the theme parks, and the cruise line. This ecosystem around Disney+ makes the whole proposition truly unique. Finally, it’s also about fandom – and that’s from Disney, too. Our fan event, D23, brings together tens of thousands to celebrate the love of Disney IP. We’ll be bringing the D23 to Singapore in 2027. So, what’s different? Well, only a company like Disney could do something like this.
For a while, it seemed like Disney+ was content to build a strong direct-to-consumer business in this region at its own pace. But recently, there has been a clear push to ramp up original content production and forge new partnerships. Disney also recently overtook Prime Video to become the second-largest investor in local original content in Asia after Netflix. So what is ambition? Is Disney+ seeking to win in key markets in this region, or is it satisfied with being a strong second place?
What we want is sustainable growth. It is not growth at all costs; It’s really about being very aware of our investments. Obviously, we’ve always invested a lot in content – the number that our new CEO Josh D’Amaro mentioned recently was $24 billion invested in content worldwide this year. Local content is an important element in this. We love the Asia-Pacific region because it represents a huge opportunity, but it’s also fragmented – it’s different. So, while we can leverage the scale we have through our significant intellectual property rights and franchises, we have always recognized the need for local content. So I don’t think that has changed. But we look to be more local while always continuing to leverage our global scale. Part of this is our increasing investments in Korean and Japanese content, and another good example is payment method localization. You can’t operate in this part of the world by just offering credit cards – people like to use mobile wallets or direct billing from the telco. About a year ago in Japan, we started accepting payments via PayPay, which has been very helpful. So, while you leverage a platform with some of the best international content in the world, you need localization in every way – for payment method, pricing, partnerships, and local content. And it all continues.
Let’s move on to sports – which is still at a relatively early stage of development among premium global broadcasters, with complex and highly fragmented rights in such a diverse region. What does Disney+ and ESPN’s real-life sports footprint look like in the Asia-Pacific region, in, say, three or four years’ time?
If you take a step back and look at ESPN, they are an amazing brand in the US and in a few different markets, well recognized, with decades of experience in the sports industry. Now, if you zoom in to the Asia Pacific region specifically, starting with Australia and New Zealand, we’ve been running ESPN there for decades, and of course the market was clear where we wanted to expand ESPN distribution to Disney+. Now, if you’re a Disney+ subscriber in Sydney or Auckland, ESPN is part of your package – it’s part of the package, along with Hulu and the other brands. You can find almost the same content on ESPN on Disney+ as on the linear channels. This has been well received by our customers. And of course, we received feedback from the rest of Asia: when Will ESPN come? Of course, we don’t have the same influence outside of Australia and New Zealand, but we still have some old fanbase. We have the ESPN website in the Philippines and Singapore which has a large following, so there is still some audience and awareness in those markets. We decided to do a soft launch of ESPN in other parts of the Asia-Pacific region – Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore – where we mainly leveraged the existing exposure, which is primarily US sports. This is a good start. It gives us the opportunity to learn about the market and learn about customer behavior. We’ve also done some local acquisitions in terms of content. In Korea, we acquired the rights to KeSPA — a League of Legends eSports tournament. Esports is really big in Korea, and we were pleasantly surprised by the impact of KeSPA on Disney+. We think eSports is a very interesting category for us, and it has a place on ESPN. We have NBA rights in the Philippines as well – you may know that there are approximately 60 million NBA fans in the Philippines; They’re crazy about basketball. So now we have that on Disney+. And again, on the topic of sustainable growth, the same applies to sports. We will invest – we have experience in the sport, we understand the sport – but we will do it in a profitable and sustainable way, and we will try to learn as we go. We are moving and learning, and there will certainly be more to come.
So far, ESPN is only available in English in the more valuable East Asian markets like Japan and Korea, right? Do you see investing in more local language sports broadcasting and content soon?
That’s what I was alluding to, and that’s why I say it’s a soft launch – we basically didn’t do the localization, we released the offering as is. Right now, this is resonating with expatriates and a specific segment of customers, as you can imagine. But as we grow, we’ll start to see how we can localize more and add more local content and local rights. By the way, KeSPA is in Korean and fully subtitled, although the rest of ESPN’s offerings are not. So there’s already some localization happening. To achieve real success, you definitely need localization – you just need to do that – and we see this as just the first iteration.
Would potential next steps be closer to a KeSPA deal — a more niche sport where Disney+ could add value — or could it go after some of the more expensive but more aggressive high-profile sports in those areas?
Again, we will do this selectively and intentionally. The good news is that ESPN has relationships with all the major leagues in the world, because we’ve been a big player for much longer. So we always have a seat at the table. But we will do it if it makes economic sense for us, and make sure we’re targeting rights that are relevant locally and at the same time on brand with ESPN. We really try to be selective in each market.
One of the big themes at APOS this year is the explosive growth of vertical and short-form content. This prosperity is greater in this region than anywhere else. Will Disney+ play short in Asia in the coming months and years, or will this distract from your core premium offerings?
It’s definitely an important trend, as I mentioned, and we’ve already done that in the US, launching Verts, which are vertical videos. We now use it as a discovery tool – we usually use our AI algorithm to take some scenes and put them in a vertical format, and then you can browse vertical videos. Created from our existing content, because we understand that people use their mobile devices to explore. If they are interested, they can watch the long version. We recognize this trend, which is why we launched Verts on Disney+. If it works, we will do it in more markets, but for now it’s still a test.
Why has it taken so long for Disney to invest more in Japanese live event content, given that Japan is arguably the most valuable growth market for streaming services in the region?
Japan is one of our biggest opportunities, and the amount of creativity and intellectual property in the country is enormous. Currently, we see Korean content released more than Japanese content, with the exception of anime. So, the live content you produce in Japan is primarily consumed in Japan. The market is big enough to sustain that. We’ve had some strong success in the past with a show called Janibal,You will see more and more products coming from us in Japan. I hope it eventually starts traveling the same way Korean content did. We recently did the deal with The Seven, [a Tokyo-based production banner]to co-produce some content with them. This is a great opportunity. We’re also very excited about the upcoming show called Happy birthday perry love – A romantic comedy that’s a crossover between Korea and Japan, featuring both Korean and Japanese stars. I think co-productions between Japan and Korea is another trend that you’ll start to see more and more.
How is the ad-supported subscription tier for Disney+ rolling out in this region?
The ad layer launched in Australia and New Zealand in April. It was a natural next step for us, because we already had an advertising sales team on the ground and this market is very mature. We are very happy with the initial results. We will see how it goes, and if successful we may explore other markets. We have already significantly expanded our reach in Europe. We think the level of advertising helps with accessibility – some people don’t mind seeing fewer ads to pay a little less, and we feel that’s a great approach.
Will it be coming to South Korea and Japan soon? Netflix has had ads in those markets for some time, right?
Netflix was one of the first to do so – in late 2022 in Japan, Korea and Australia. We took our time trying to expand into the market first. You have to remember that Disney+ has been around in the Asia-Pacific region since 2020. In some markets, it launched later – in the Philippines, it was only in 2022. So the focus was launch, get the scale, and then explore an ad layer. We’re making a lot of progress, but we’re still very new, to be clear.
As I mentioned here at APOS, your new CEO has talked a lot about trying hard to improve the Disney+ product and make it a gateway to everything Disney. What do you think that will look like, and what will it do for you in the Asian growth markets?
His vision is very clear, and I think this is already happening in some way. If you look at Disney+, you actually see a bunch of brands from The Walt Disney Company. We initially started with Disney, Pixar, Star Wars, National Geographic, and Marvel. And now we’ve just added Hulu, which is now wholly owned by The Walt Disney Company, and more recently we added ESPN in the Asia Pacific region. So this is really kind of the one Disney approach. The question is what else do we want to do. We have Disney+ Perks, our loyalty program, and it’s a tactic to help engage our most loyal customers — we give them access to some amazing perks and promotions from our sister companies: the parks, cruise line, Disney Stores, etc. This gives a glimpse into what Disney’s one-stop approach could be. It has already happened, and there is more to come.
Disney has many attractive assets and many undeniable strengths. However, Wall Street did not appreciate this for long. I know this is a CEO question, but you should also consider this… Is the current valuation fair or unfair, and what would it take to change Wall Street’s view? Where can a new narrative that looks to the future come from?
I think that’s a great motivator, because it pushes us to really focus on what matters and focus on the essence. When you have a lot of assets, and a lot of different businesses, it’s of course difficult to really focus on substance and execution, because you have a lot of temptations. This means that we have to be aware of our assets, but really focus on what matters. If you look at the streaming service, It all starts with your content – the magic of storytelling – and you really have to get it right. As I said, this mix of global content and local content is crucial. Then, having the right product, where you’re putting the right content in front of the right audience – that’s all your personalization, your recommendation algorithm – that’s crucial. Having the right tone of voice in marketing, and making sure we create moments of truth. And finally, bring all of this demand together using the right monetization approach, the right pricing strategy, and the right partnership approach. These are the basic things we have to do well. So it’s all about execution. It seems like a very simple thing to say, but Disney is a big organization, and we need to make sure that everyone operates as one Disney, because that’s our secret strength — that’s our X factor. If we do this well, great things will happen. Like I said when we started, we’re running our own race. Disney is Disney, a whole different beast, and that’s what we have to do – not get too distracted by the competition. If not, it will drive you crazy, because the competition is so great. The competition for attention isn’t just limited to Netflix; It’s YouTube, it’s TikTok, it’s music – it can be so many things. And it will always change. But what we can do is really focus on what we need to do, and do it well.
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