In his first interview since switching teams from Netflix, Tony Zameczkowski shares Disney's strategy across the Asia-Pacific region and why the company will always "run its own race."
Tony Zameczkowski, one of the architects of Netflix’s pioneering success in the Asia-Pacific region, is now at Disney+.
He arrived last August as Disney’s senior vice president and general manager of direct-to-consumer for Asia Pacific — a role broadly analogous to the one he left at Netflix. For most of Disney+’s life in the region, the company has looked for content to build a steady business at its own pace and in its own style, while Netflix set the upper limits of what aggressive streaming growth in the region could look like. Recently, though, Disney has begun making moves — including the poaching of Zameczkowski — that suggest its pace of activity in APAC could be quickening. Its growing investments in K-drama have yielded some of Disney+’s most welcome surprises of 2026: Perfect Crown, an alternate-reality romantic comedy, became the platform’s biggest Korean series premiere to date and its most-watched Korean title yet, with more than 43 million watch hours; and the hit fortune-teller reality format Battle of Fates did so well that a slate of remakes is being planned across Asia. ESPN has arrived on Disney+ in Australia and New Zealand to fanfare, and the company has signaled it will spend more aggressively on content in Japan — the region’s most valuable accessible market, and one it has been conspicuously slow to scale.
The push has come straight from the top: Josh D’Amaro, in his first earnings call as Disney’s chief executive, highlighted the “meaningful opportunity” abroad and said there would be a deliberate increase in local-content spending, particularly in places like Korea. According to regional consultancy Media Partners Asia, Disney recently passed Prime Video as the second-largest investor in original content in Asia-Pacific.
Before joining Netflix in 2016, Zameczkowski was instrumental in building YouTube’s business in Asia as the company’s regional director for YouTube Music. That followed an early-career stint at Warner Bros. International Television in Paris.
In his first trade interview in his new role, Zameczkowski sat down with The Hollywood Reporter on the sidelines of APOS, Asia’s leading media and entertainment summit, to give an overview of Disney’s current strategy in the streaming sector’s most diverse but fastest-growing major region.
For nearly a decade, you ran partnerships at Netflix in Asia-Pacific, which was an essential part of the playbook that helped the company become the region’s streaming leader. Coming to Disney+, what have you brought with you, and what are you deliberately doing differently?
Well, I joined Netflix in 2016, right after Reed Hastings announced the launch in 130 markets. And you’re absolutely right, partnerships were a key part of the Netflix strategy, together with content. But that’s obviously still super important for Disney+ as well. You have to get the right distribution, but also the right bundle with partners. You can count on your retail offer to get your super fans; but you usually target the casual fan with a bundle offer. We do it with telcos. We also sometimes do it with other streamers. A good example would be the bundle we have with Tving in Korea, where, for one price, you can basically get both Tving and Disney+ together. So that’s also a core part of the strategy, and we want to continue looking for more ways to do that.
The other thing Netflix did better than most people expected was making local content a core part of the offer across markets. For Disney+, it’s a combination of two things. One is our global IP — Disney has some of the biggest IP in the world — combined with local content. We invest in both Korean and Japanese content. Korean content has been a very interesting genre because it travels really well. A good example would be Perfect Crown, which is a romantic comedy and a big hit. It’s a good demonstration of how Korean content on Disney+ can travel — it’s been the number one series premiere for a Korean show on Disney+. It did something like 43 million watch hours, which is quite amazing. Another was Battle of Fates, an unscripted show about fortune tellers, which was a big hit, and we’ll also remake it across territories.
But to your point, 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 quite amazing. It’s not only Disney, but also ESPN, Hulu, the theme parks and the cruise line. This ecosystem around Disney+ makes the whole proposition really unique. Finally, it’s also about fandom — and that’s also very Disney. Our fan event, D23, brings together tens of thousands to celebrate the love for Disney IP. We’ll be bringing D23 to Singapore in 2027. So, what’s different? Well, only a company like Disney can do something like that.
For quite some time, it seemed that Disney+ was content to build a solid direct-to-consumer business in this region at its own pace, in its own style. But recently, there’s been a clear push to ramp up original content production and ink new partnerships. Disney also recently overtook Prime Video to become the second-biggest investor in local original content in Asia behind Netflix. So what’s the ambition? Is Disney+ playing to win in the key markets of this region, or content to be a strong number two?
What we want is sustainable growth. It’s not growth at all costs; it’s really about being very mindful of our investments. Obviously, we’ve always invested a lot in content — the figure our new CEO Josh D’Amaro recently mentioned was $24 billion invested in content across the world this year. And local content is an important component of that. We love APAC because it’s a huge opportunity, but it’s also fragmented — it’s different. So while we can leverage the scale we have with our big IP and franchises, we’ve always recognized the need for local content. So I don’t think that’s changed. But we are looking to be even more local while we continue to always benefit from our global scale. Part of that is our growing investments in Korean and Japanese content, another good example would be localizing the method of payment. You can’t operate in this part of the world just offering credit cards — people like to use mobile wallets or direct carrier billing. About a year ago in Japan, we started accepting payment via PayPay, and it’s been very helpful. So while you leverage a platform with some of the best global content in the world, you need to be localizing in all ways — for method of payment, pricing, partnerships, and local content. And all of that is ongoing.
Let’s turn to sports — still at a relatively early stage of development among the premium global streamers, with rights quite complicated and fragmented in this diverse region. What does a realistic Disney+ and ESPN sports footprint look like in Asia-Pacific, in, say, three or four years?
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 essentially didn’t localize, we launched the offering as is. Right now, it resonates with expats and a specific segment of customers, as you can imagine. But as we grow, we’ll start to see how we can localize a bit more, adding more local content and local rights. KeSPA is in Korean and fully localized, by the way — even though the rest of the ESPN offering isn’t. So there’s already some localization happening. For real success, you definitely need to localize — you just have to — and we see this as just the first iteration.
Will the likely next steps be more akin to the KeSPA deal — a more niche sport where Disney+ can add value — or is it possible you’ll go after some of the marquee sports that are more expensive but more powerful in those territories?
Again, we’ll do it selectively and intentionally. The good news is that ESPN has relationships with all of the biggest leagues in the world, because we’ve been a big player for the longest. So we always have a seat at the table. But we’ll do it if it makes sense for us economically, and make sure we target rights that are relevant locally and at the same time on brand with ESPN. We’re really trying to be selective in each of the markets.
One of the big themes at APOS this year is the explosive growth of vertical and short-form content. That boom is bigger in this region than anywhere. Is Disney+ going to play in short form in Asia in the months and years ahead, or is that a distraction from your core premium offering?
It’s definitely an important trend, as you mentioned, and we’ve actually been doing it already in the U.S. We launched Verts, which is vertical videos. Right now we use it as a discovery tool — typically we use our AI algorithm to take some scenes and put them in a vertical format, and then you can browse vertical videos. These are made from our existing content, because we recognize that people use their mobile device for discovery. If they’re interested, they can watch the long-form version. We recognize the trend, and that’s why we launched Verts on Disney+. If it’s a success, we’ll do it in more markets, but right now it’s still a test.
Why has it taken Disney so long to invest more in Japanese live-action content, given that Japan is arguably the highest-value growth market for streaming services in the region?
Japan is one of our biggest opportunities, and the amount of creativity and IP in the country is immense. Currently, we see Korean content exporting more than Japanese content, with the exception of anime. So, the live-action content you produce in Japan is essentially consumed in Japan. The market is big enough to sustain that. We had some solid success in the past with a show called Gannibal, and you’re going to see more and more production coming from us in Japan. My hope is that it ultimately starts to travel 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. That’s a great opportunity. We’re also very excited about an upcoming show called Merry Berry Love — a romantic comedy that’s a crossover between Korea and Japan, featuring both Korean and Japanese stars. I believe co-production between Japan and Korea is another trend you’ll start to see more and more.
How’s the rollout of the ad-supported subscription tier for Disney+ going in this region?
The ad tier was launched in Australia and New Zealand in April. It was a natural next step for us, because we already have an ad sales team on the ground and that market is very mature. We’re very pleased with the initial results. We’ll see how it goes, and in success we might explore other markets. We’ve actually already expanded significantly in Europe. We believe the ad tier helps with accessibility — some people don’t mind watching a little bit of ads to pay a bit less, and we feel it’s a great approach.
Is it 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 it — in late 2022 in Japan, Korea, and Australia. We’ve been taking our time, trying to really scale in the market first. You have to remember that Disney+ has been in APAC since 2020. In some markets, we launched even later — in the Philippines, it was only 2022. So the focus was launch, get the scale, then explore an ad tier. We’re making a lot of progress, but we’re still pretty new, to be clear.
As you’ve mentioned here at APOS, your new CEO has talked a lot about aggressively trying to improve the Disney+ product and making it the gateway for everything Disney. What’s your view on what that will look like, and what will it do for you in your Asian growth markets?
His vision is very clear, and I think it’s already happening in a way. If you look at Disney+, you already see a collection 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 fully owned by the Walt Disney Company, and recently in APAC we added ESPN. So that’s already kind of a one-Disney approach. The question is what else we want to do. We have Disney+ Perks, our loyalty program, which is a tactic to help engage our most loyal customers — we give them access to some amazing perks and promos from sister companies: the parks, the cruise line, Disney stores, and so on. So that gives a glimpse of what a one-Disney approach can be. It’s already happening, and there is more to come.
Disney has so many attractive assets and so many undeniable strengths. Yet Wall Street hasn’t appreciated that for quite a long time. I know this is a chief executive question, but you must also think about this… Is the current valuation fair or unfair, and what will it take to change Wall Street’s view? Where might a new, forward-looking narrative come from?
I think it’s a great motivation, because it pushes us to be really focused on what matters and to focus on the core. When you have so many assets, so many different businesses, it’s of course more challenging to be really focused on the core and the execution, because you have so many temptations. It means we have to be mindful of our assets, but really focus on what matters. If you look at a streaming service, it all starts with your content — the magic of your storytelling — and you really have to get it right. As I said, this combination of global content and local content is critical. Then, having the right product, where you put the right content in front of the right audience — that’s all your personalization, your recommendation algorithm — that’s very critical. Having the right tone of voice with marketing, making sure we create moments of truth. And finally, collecting all that demand with the right monetization approach, the right pricing strategy, the right partnership approach. These are the core things we need to do really well. So it’s all about execution. It feels like something very simple to say, but Disney is a large organization, and we need to make sure everyone is operating as one Disney, because that’s our secret power — that’s our X factor. If we do that really well, great things will happen. As I said when we started, we run our own race. Disney is Disney, a very different beast, and that’s what we need to do — not be too distracted by competition. If not, it’ll drive you crazy, because the competition is so large. Competition for attention isn’t just Netflix; it’s YouTube, it’s TikTok, it’s music — it can be many, many things. And it’s always going to be changing. But what we can do is really focus on what we have to do, and do it well.
