The Walt Disney corporation will be “pretty dramatically” cutting its spending on traditional television network as the company seeks to bolster its streaming services, chief executive Bob Iger said Wednesday.
Iger stated that traditional television networks, such as ABC and ESPN, will continue to serve as an important marketing tool for reaching older viewers. Still, the company is hoping to ““reduce pretty dramatically our investment in content specifically aimed at those traditional networks,” Iger said while speaking at the MoffettNathanson’s 2024 Media, Internet and Communications Conference.
While addressing the company’s theme parks, Iger said continued growth was expected, albeit at a slower rate compared to recent years.
“We’ve had double-digit revenue growth in that business for quite some time, and that’s extraordinary,” he said. “But I think we’re being realistic, too, in that delivering double-digit revenue growth … well into the future is not necessarily that achievable.”
The cuts come as Disney seeks to recover from a rough patch in recent years fueled by massive losses on streaming services and a series of box office bombs.
In the second quarter of 2024, the number of global Disney+ subscribers stand at 153.6 million. This is down roughly four million subscribers when compared with the same quarter in the previous year.
The company also suffered a number of losses at the box office in 2023, at one point losing more than $1-billion over a nine-film stretch. The that run included a number of films with woke themes such as race-swapping, feminism and marketing homosexuality to children with films such as The Little Mermaid, Lightyear and Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny.
Disney’s share price closed $102.66 on Wednesday. It is currently down by 21.93 percent over the last five years.