By Disney CEO Bob Iger turned up at the MoffettNathanson Media, Internet & Communications Conference this week where he discussed his studio’s disappointing fortunes in recent years.
According to THR, Iger indicates Disney+ has lost $4 billion with the reasoning for the huge losses being put down to the company trying to do too much and too fast:
“As we got into the streaming business in a very, very aggressive way, we tried to tell too many stories. Basically, we invested too much, way ahead of possible returns. It’s what led to streaming ending up as a $4 billion loss.”
A lot of the misplaced content spending problems he seemed to place on his hand-picked successor, former Disney CEO Bob Chapek who moved profit and losses responsibility to the studio’s distribution arm.
This resulted in “volume and not quality, which turned out to be a mistake”. It’s a move he reversed on his return as CEO in 2022, reinstalling a link between the creative and monetization sides of the studio to help guide what’s being made.
Disney+ subscriber numbers hit a peak of 164.2 million in the third calendar quarter of 2022, the number having dropped to 153.6 million for the most recent quarter.
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