Disney to push up spending on content; $33 Bn set aside for 2022 fiscal

Content plan with a direct-to-consumer strategy will be seen as a high priority by Disney.

Great content is a priority area for The Walt Disney Co as it wrapped up overall spending for the 2022 fiscal. Disney has made known its plans to push up spending on content for the year, and has earmarked close to $33 billion for the fiscal that got started on October 1.

The company’s annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission talks of an approximate increase of $8 billion to the company’s fiscal 2021 spending. The 2021 spend stood at $25 billion. The proposed spend of $33 billion would include content sports rights and other content for ESPN, ESPN Plus and other platforms.

Disney content spend would focus on streaming

As expected, Disney’s content spend would ride on its bid to capture a major streaming share, with platforms of the likes of Disney Plus, Hulu and ESPN Plus on the radar. This would also mean that the spending would see a shift from the earlier focus on Disney’s businesses on television and film.

The new shift in spending follows a strategy it had charted out on the direct-to-consumer domain, and its content plan with this strategy will be seen as a high priority by Disney, said a Variety report. Streaming will see a major investment during the 2022 fiscal, for sure.

Besides, the company is also set to release close to 50 titles for theatrical and streaming distribution during the 2022 financial year. In its bouquet would be films and also a variety of series for television.

Projects galore in the works

As many as 60 unscripted series, 30 comedy series, 25 drama series, 15 docuseries and limited series, 10 animated series, five made-for-TV movies and numerous shorts and specials are what the company’s general entertainment division would be looking at rolling out during the 2022 fiscal year.

Though the plans are set, the productions of these films and series could find themselves in a temporary roadblock as the COVID-19 situation has already slammed the brakes on major production plans. Motion pictures for Disney mostly come out of Walt Disney Pictures, Twentieth Century Studios, Marvel, Lucasfilm, Pixar and Searchlight Pictures, it added.

So the direct-to-consumer horizon will see itself expanding for Disney, and the company is expected to make it a point that it would ramp up content production and commissioning across the board to feed Disney Plus, Hulu and other platforms.