Disney (DIS) is looking for someone to aid the entertainment and media giant's efforts in the non-fungible token, or NFT space, as the company looks to make some kind of move into the metaverse.
The notice for manager of business development posted on the company's website calls for "an essential player on the Digital Experiences team."
"You will help lead Disney's efforts in the NFT space including monitoring the evolving marketplace, setting category strategy, and managing key partners," the notice said.
The ad seeks someone who has knowledge of and has a passion for digital and NFT categories and who can "identify growth opportunities by category, franchise, and distribution and implement new deals to fill gaps."
The ideal candidate, the notice said, will "identify growth opportunities by category, franchise, and distribution and implement new deals to fill gaps."
Disney's metaverse plans came up during Wednesday's analysts' call after the company posted stronger-than-expected first-quarter earnings, lead by impressive gains in subscriber growth for its streaming service.
Responding to an analyst's question, Chapek did not get into specifics, but did say the metaverse "is absolutely top-of-mind because we realize that in the future you can call it what you want."
Disney
'You Want to Call it Metaverse'
"You want to call it metaverse," he said, according to a transcript of the call, "you want to call it the blending of the physical and digital experiences which I think Disney should excel at for all the reasons that you said in your opening."
He was responding to the question: "As you think about sports betting and the metaverse, it just seems like strategically, that's going to become potentially a more-important piece of your core competency going forward. Is that sort of top-of-mind or do you think that's sort of not a correct way to think about sort of the muscles that you guys need to build for the next five years?" Citigroup Global Markets' analyst Jason Boisvert Bazinet asked.
Chapek said innovation is one of Disney's three strategic pillars, along with storytelling excellence and audience focus.
"We realize that it's going to be less of a passive-type experience where you just have playback," he said, "whether it's a sporting event or whether it's an entertainment offering, and more of an interactive lean-forward actively engage-type experience."
Chapek added that "we are continuing over time to augment our skills and the types of people that we attract into The Walt Disney Company to reflect the aggressive and ambitious technology agenda that we have."
"While multi-platform 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," he said.
The channels extend to sports betting, gaming and the metaverse, Chapek said.
"In fact, that's what excites us," he continued, "the opportunity to build a sports machine akin to our franchise flywheel that enables audiences to the experience, connect with and become actively engaged with our favorite sporting events, stories, teams and players."
