Disney will be making fewer shows going forward, and it’s going to be removing some shows and films from its Disney+ service too.
Like Warner Bros before it, Disney is now in the midst of trying to economise when it comes to its streaming service. Over the past half decade, Disney has thrown colossal resources at its Disney+ platform, and been rewarded with high subscriber numbers. But maintaining those numbers is an expensive business, as the likes of Netflix and Warner Bros have been discovering.
Now comes the confirmation that the cost-cutting is in full flow, and it’s going to be taking a hit in the short term – a ‘content impairment charge’ – as it removes shows and films from its Disney+ service.
The news was confirmed by Christine McCarthy, the CFO of Disney, who said that “we are in the process of reviewing the content on our DTC services to align with the strategic changes in our approach to content curation”. DTC standing for direct to consumer, in this case.
She continued, adding “we will be removing certain content from our streaming platforms and currently expect to take an impairment charge of approximately $1.5 to $1.8 billion”.
The plan then going forward is that Disney+ will be making fewer original shows, but will be targeting which productions to back a lot more closely. More recently, it’s already pulled the plug on future episodes of Willow and National Treasure, and it’s looking to save over $5bn once its current run of staff layoffs and economising is done. Happy times. Sigh.
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