The success of Disney's offerings in the home entertainment market depends in part on consumer preferences with respect to home entertainment formats, including DVD players and personal video recorders, as well as the availability of alternative home entertainment offerings and technologies, including web-based delivery of entertainment offerings.

Technological developments offer consumers an expanding array of entertainment options and if consumers favor options that Disney has not yet fully developed rather than the entertainment products they do offer, their sales may be adversely affected.

Political and legal issues

The success of Disney's businesses is highly dependent on maintenance of intellectual property rights in the entertainment products and services they create. New technologies such as the convergence of computing, communication, and entertainment devices, the falling prices of devices incorporating such technologies, and increased broadband internet speed and penetration have made the unauthorized digital copying and distribution of their films, television productions and other creative works easier and faster and enforcement of intellectual property rights more challenging. 

The unauthorized use of intellectual property rights in the entertainment industry is a significant and rapidly growing phenomenon. These developments require Disney to devote substantial resources to protecting their intellectual property against unauthorized use and present the risk of increased losses of revenue as a result of unauthorized digital distribution of their content and sales of unauthorized DVDs and other counterfeit products.