It’s always fun to catch up with our good friend, Disney CEO Bob Iger. Over the last few months, he’s been trying to explain, mostly to company shareholders, why Disney has been in such a rut.
A major issue right now for Iger is their streaming platform, Disney+, which was supposed to be Netflix’s main rival in the streaming wars. That didn’t turn out so well. As Netflix keeps gaining in audience, Disney+ keeps dwindling, having lost 1.5 million subscribers during the last quarter of 2023.
Speaking as part of the MoffettNathanson Media, Internet & Communications Conference (via THR), Iger admitted that Disney+ lost a whopping $4 billion. The reasons given for these huge losses was the “aggressive” nature of the company in wanting to tell “too many stories”:
“As we got into the streaming business in a very, very aggressive way, we tried to tell too many stories,” explained Iger. “Basically we invested too much, way ahead of possible returns. It’s what led to streaming ending up as a $4 billion loss.”
So, spending outpaced the revenue, and there’s a feeling that maybe, going forward, a less is better approach might benefit the company. This is why many already-announced shows are getting canned by Disney. They’re also pulling content out of the platform as a way to embark in tax write-offs.
Take for example, the total budget of their “She-Hulk” series, which was around $225 million. It wasn’t money well-spent as She-Hulk’ received mixed reviews and, according to Rotten Tomatoes, its audience score was just 32%. There are countless other examples of pricey streaming endeavors that didn’t pay off for the moue house.
Disney+ had a 12-month span, between late 2022 and late 2023, where they lost close to 18 million subscribers. In order to boost the revenues of the platform, still in deficit, Disney decided to increase its prices in the United States. As of last October, Disney+ Premium upped its cost to $13.99/month compared to the previous $10.99/month.