Good morning. The Oscars are officially host-less.

• Want to join the Market? Sign up here.

MediaNews Group/Getty

Bob Iger stockpiles for war

Talk of Tinseltown: Disney is entering the Streaming Wars: Bob Iger is about to start stockpiling movies and shows for his new Disney+ streaming service — a power play for the premium kids and family space and a shot across the bow at competitors like Netflix.

• The Latest: Disney will forgo roughly $150 million in content licensing revenue this year as it stops sharing major movies like "Captain Marvel" with competitors and makes it exclusive to the Disney+ streaming service.

• Disney has several major motion picture releases this year that could also be withheld from competitors, including Infinity War 2, Toy Story 4, The Lion King, Frozen 2 and Star Wars 9.

• That lost revenue will be added to the technical costs of launching the Disney+ service, as well as the costs for creating new original content that will be exclusive to Disney+.

What's Next: Disney+ will join Hulu and ESPN+ in a slate of direct-to-consumer offerings that could make Disney the top player in Hollywood's streaming wars or at least give Netflix a run for its money.

• The three platforms, which can be bundled together, also offer life rafts for Disney when its linear programming collapses: Disney+ for families and kids; Hulu for adults; ESPN+ for sports fans.

• Disney now says that ESPN+ has more than 2 million subscribers, more than double what it had in September.

The Big Picture: Disney has the strongest intellectual property portfolio in the business: Marvel, Pixar, LucasFilm, ESPN, etc., which is what enables Iger to go head-to-head with Netflix.

• This pays dividends: The Disney+ subscriber is worth so much more than the Netflix subscriber, because Disney fans (especially kids) don't just want programming: they want merchandise, games, books, comics, theme parks, etc.

• In other words, Iger will make money when your kid dresses up as Elsa or Ant Man for Halloween ... Reed Hastings won't make a dime if your kid dresses up as a kid from Bird Box.

Talk of the Street: Disney beat its quarterly estimates.

Bloomberg/Getty

Reed Hastings' harsh reality

Speaking of Disney vs. Netflix ... Fortune's David Trainer argues that investors "are losing patience with Netflix’s extraordinary cash flow burn" as Reed Hastings amasses tens of billions in debt.

• The Big Challenge: "Netflix needs to prove it can monetize its original content before competition [like Disney] takes more market share."

• The Big Number: "Netflix needs over 500 million subscribers at $20/month to justify [its] $350/share." It currently has 137 million.

The Big Picture: "Time is running out for Netflix’s current business model to work. ... Without additional price increases, [it] needs half the global population to sign up for Netflix."

⚾ Rally the Market ⚾

The best television content is still on linear television, because linear television still has the sports rights. But even that has a shelf life, as Axios' Sara Fischer notes here.

• Bonus: The craziest story in sports? It's February and Bryce Harper and Manny Machado still don't have a home.

If you're enjoying the newsletter, share it with friends.

Mike Coppola/Getty

Tim Sweeney goes Metaverse

What's Next: While Bob Iger and Reed Hastings go to war over the future of movies and television, video game pioneers like Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney are charting the course into a new genre of entertainment known as the Metaverse — with earth-shattering implications for the future of media and entertainment.

Matthew Ball, an incredibly insightful writer at Media Redef and the former head of strategy at Amazon Studios, explains:

• Epic Games' Fortnite has more than 200 million registered accounts and "likely represents the largest persistent media event in human history."

• Fortnite has laid the foundations of "a Metaverse ... a collective virtual shared space ... a 'digital' reality where all 'physical' humans would simultaneously co-exist."

• "To Sweeney, the Metaverse represents the 'next version' of the Internet."

Ball says Fortnite is "uniquely positioned" to own this space:

• "Fortnite’s great advantage [is] that it’s already a massive social square that’s gradually taking on the qualities of one."

• "The proof of Fortnite’s unique potential was demonstrated live on February 1 [when the popular DJ] Marshmello held a live concert that was held exclusively inside Fortnite."

• "The event ... was attended by more than 10 million [players] in the game – with millions more watching live via Twitch and YouTube .... and it showcases the potential of the Metaverse, wherein a user can have potentially unlimited experiences inside a single medium."

The Big Picture: "The opportunity in front of Epic is Olympic in size. ... Sweeney is keenly aware of the Metaverse opportunity, as well as a path forward with Fortnite."

• Bonus: Netflix's Hastings last month: "We compete with (and lose to) Fortnite more than HBO."

Market Links

• Angela Ahrendts steps down as Apple retail chief (WSJ)

• Mark Zuckerberg removes more Alex Jones content (CNN)

• Steve Huffman raises a new round at Reddit (TechCrunch)

• Bob Bakish sees strong revenue growth at Viacom (WSJ)

• Josh Tyrangiel leads Vice toward a Hulu deal (The Wrap)

• Megan Ellison doubles down on Annapurna's MGM deal (THR)

• Jess Szmajda blazes a trail as new Axios CTO (Vanity Fair)

Michael Cohen/Getty

Evan Spiegel milks a lemon

What's Next: Evan Spiegel's Snapchat did not add any new users in the last quarter, but he did manage to slow the exodus while squeezing more money out of his existing user base.

Bloomberg's Sarah Frier assesses a relative win:

• "The steady numbers are a victory considering that analysts projected the amount of people using Snapchat daily would shrink."

• "Snap said it has been able to add more advertisers using its automated tools, increasing demand and therefore boosting prices for promotions on the mobile app."

The Big Picture: "After a volatile year of executive departures, a redesign of the social-media platform that outraged some users, and problems with the Android version of Snapchat ... Spiegel is trying to grow the still-unprofitable business into something more sustainable."

What's Next: Valentine's Day is a week and a day away. Bloomberg has you covered in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Washington.

• But the best move is to cook at home.

See you tomorrow.