Today Disney released a letter to Shareholders to talk about the future of the company. In that letter, Disney briefly broke down its goals from CEO Bob Iger, including a plan that includes “prioritizing streaming profitability” with Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+.
“The Board is overseeing important strategic changes that our CEO Bob Iger is executing, such as putting more decision-making into the creative teams, implementing a cost reduction plan, prioritizing streaming profitability and improving the guest experience in our parks.” Disney said in the letter to shareholders.
It has been reported that Disney+ and Paramount+ are not expected to be profitable until 2024 or 2025 if everything goes well. Now it seems that Disney wants to move that date up as much as possible.
What is clear is that most streaming services right now are not profitable. Even large well, known streaming services are still not profitable in 2023. So how Disney plans to make their services profitable is unknown but there is a growing movement within the industry to cut back on the amount of original content, focus on offering ad-supported options, and more. Disney is already offering an ad-supported version it is possible that Disney could join the likes of Warner Bros. Discovery to cut back on content costs and even license some of it to other ad-supported services.
This all comes as Disney is facing efforts by an activist investor, Trian Fund Management, L.P., Nelson Peltz, along with others, to put their members on the Disney board.
“We look forward to providing you with more information regarding the Board and management team’s strategy to deliver shareholder value in today’s rapidly shifting media ecosystem and the reasons why the election of Mr. Peltz will not benefit that plan.” Disney said in its letter to shareholders.
So what will come from this is unknown, but it is clear Disney has more on its mind than just how to run Disney+. Disney is also focusing on how to fight off activist investors who want to make changes to the company.