{"id":143501,"date":"2025-11-19T19:53:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T19:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/143501\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T19:53:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T19:53:09","slug":"disney-content-spending-2026-forecast-24b-for-sports-entertainment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/143501\/","title":{"rendered":"Disney Content Spending 2026 Forecast $24B for Sports, Entertainment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIn fiscal 2026, Disney<\/a> expects to spend $24 billion on content across entertainment and sports, up about $1 billion from $23 billion in FY25 (which ended Sept. 27). CFO Hugh Johnston expects the company\u2019s total content budget to continue to grow, but he said it won\u2019t be at the levels of recent years when Disney and others were \u201coverproducing\u201d original content.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe $24 billion content-spending forecast splits about half sports on the ESPN side of the house and half on entertainment, Johnston said, speaking Wednesday at the Wells Fargo Technology, Media, and Telecom Summit in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think that split will hold\u201d going forward, although spending on entertainment \u201cmay grow a little faster than sports,\u201d Johnston said. Disney plans to invest more in local content in certain markets, he added: \u201cWe have rights to succeed with respect to Disney content, but we need to supplement that with local content. So the strategy is very much to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGoing forward, Disney\u2019s content spending will continue to grow from $24 billion in FY26. But it won\u2019t be at the levels that Disney and other media companies were spending during the peak of the battle to acquire streaming subscribers a few years back. In fiscal 2022, Disney had expected to spend $33 billion on content<\/a>. \u201cA lot of people were overproducing\u201d content, Johnston commented, noting that \u201cwe weren\u2019t happy\u201d with the quality of some of the content coming out at the time.<\/p>\n

\n\tJohnston said Disney\u2019s total content spending will not grow faster than its direct-to-consumer revenue, which he wants to see in the double digits in the years ahead.<\/p>\n

\n\tRegarding Disney+\u2019s original go-to-market strategy, he said, \u201cThe goal first was to achieve scale, and we did do that,\u201d he said. The company had 195.7 million Disney+ and Hulu subscribers globally as of the end of September. Johnston added, \u201cThat said, there\u2019s still opportunity to expand on that sub base.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring his appearance at the conference, Johnston reiterated that Disney doesn\u2019t see the need for \u201cmajor M&A\u201d or additions to its IP portfolio. That comes as initial bids for all or part of Warner Bros. Discovery<\/a> are due Thursday, Nov. 20, with Paramount Skydance, Comcast and Netflix expected to be among the bidders.<\/p>\n

\n\tJohnston, echoing comments made by his boss, CEO Bob Iger, said Disney+ has opportunities to expand into commerce and gaming<\/a>. Over time, Disney+ will become a \u201cportal\u201d for how consumers \u201cinteract with Disney in any way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\tJohnston spoke about Disney\u2019s work to merge Hulu into Disney+ in a unified app experience, which the company expects will increase retention and reduce churn. \u201cMore than anything, we just need to get the technology, we need to get the product right,\u201d he said. The team, led by Adam Smith<\/a>, chief product and technology officer for Disney Entertainment and ESPN, is \u201cworking double-time\u201d on the project, Johnston said.<\/p>\n

\n\tRegarding ESPN Unlimited, the standalone streaming service that launched in August, Johnston said the company is \u201cvery, very happy with the start\u201d and that \u201cthe numbers are off to a very good start\u201d (but he didn\u2019t provide details). With features including fantasy sports and betting, it\u2019s a product for sports fans that is \u201cmore interactive than watching on TV,\u201d he said. Disney is offering an introductory bundle with Disney+, Hulu and ESPN Unlimited for $29.99\/month for the first 12 months, which is the same price as the standalone version of ESPN Unlimited. Johnston noted that 80% of ESPN Unlimited customers took the three-way bundle, but that isn\u2019t surprising given the sizable discount of the promo offer.<\/p>\n

\n\tDisney, in reporting its fiscal fourth quarter 2025 results last week, told investors it remains on track to deliver double-digit growth in earnings per share<\/a> over the next two years.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor full-year fiscal 2026, Disney forecast operating margin of 10% for Disney+ and Hulu, fueled by continued streaming growth and\u00a0recent price hikes<\/a>. For the entertainment segment overall, the company projects double-digit percentage segment operating income growth \u201cweighted to the second half of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the September quarter, Disney\u2019s streaming business topped Wall Street expectations,\u00a0as Disney+ notched a net gain of 3.8 million subscribers<\/a> and Hulu netted 8.6 million, helped by the introductory promo pricing of the ESPN Unlimited\/Disney+\/Hulu bundle. In addition, Hulu\u2019s gains were largely due to the expansion of its distribution deal with Charter to bundle Hulu with Spectrum TV Select. It\u2019s the last quarter Disney is disclosing those subscriber numbers, following the lead of Netflix. The company\u2019s entertainment direct-to-consumer streaming revenue increased 8% to $6.25 billion and operating income hit $352 million, up 39%, for the quarter.<\/p>\n

\n\tLast week,\u00a0Disney extended Johnston\u2019s employment agreement<\/a>\u00a0through 2029. The former longtime PepsiCo exec joined Disney in December 2023.<\/p>\n

\n\tPictured above: James Cameron\u2019s \u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash,\u201d due in theaters Dec. 19<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In fiscal 2026, Disney expects to spend $24 billion on content across entertainment and sports, up about $1…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[2398,156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":{"0":"post-143501","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-disney","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}