“We also need to strike the right balance between our local and global programming, as well as our platform and program marketing,” he said. Iger also indicated that Disney will tap the brakes on local-language content in certain areas where the return simply can’t match the investment.

“Our legacy platforms enable us to expand our audiences and often augment our potential streaming success while at the same time allowing us to amortize our content costs across multiple windows.”ĭisney will take a write-down of $1.5 billion to $1.8 billion later this year to acknowledge the loss of value in content that had been developed amid the rush to load up Disney+ and Hulu with buzzy shows that would draw new subscribers. “It’s critical we rationalize the volume of content we’re creating and what we’re spending to produce our content,” Iger told investors. Disney taking steps to further integrate Disney+ and Hulu seems like a big hint that Disney aims to buyout Comcast’s remaining one-third stake in Hulu early next year. But keen-eyed Disney observers could not ignore the subtext.

He billed it as an effort to attract new subscribers and increase engagement for both platforms, particularly Hulu. On Wednesday, Iger also unveiled plans to offer a new option for bundling Disney and Hulu into a single app. RELATED: HBO Max Has an Inventory Problem “This is part of the maturation process as we grow into a business that we had never been in,” Iger said. Discovery went through a similar house-cleaning last summer, which marked the first time one of Hollywood’s majors faced the harsh fact of inventory management in the streaming age. It will also weed through the vast library of content on on the Disney+ and Hulu platforms, removing some of the little-watched titles that are too costly to maintain as available titles due to residuals, royalties, music licensing fees and other costs. “Going forward, we intend to produce lower volumes of content in alignment with this strategic shift.”ĭisney will trim the volume of new content that it produces for 20. “We are in the process of reviewing the content on our (direct-to-consumer) services to align with the strategic changes in our approach to content curation,” McCarthy said.

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