As the streaming wars continue to heat up, the Walt Disney Co. plans to turbocharge its spending on content to $33 billion in 2022. This comes at a time when streaming companies are throwing more and more money at high-profile exclusive titles to try and increase subscriber numbers and gain an advantage over the competition.
That is an $8 billion increase from 2021, when the company says it spent approximately $25 billion on content.
In its annual report, filed with the SEC on Wednesday afternoon, the company explained:
"The increase is driven by higher spend to support our DTC expansion and generally assumes no significant disruptions to production due to COVID-19."
In other words, the company is prioritizing its streaming platforms. These direct-to-consumer services, Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+, have performed remarkably well during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Disney+ launched in late 2019 and already has achieved 119 million subscribers. The platform's subscriber count dwarfs what Apple was able to achieve with Apple+ (19 million subscribers), but still falls behind the streaming king, Netflix, which has 213 million subscribers according to ScreenRant.
The enormous figure underscores just how high the stakes are as entertainment companies go direct-to-customer, and many are speculating that Disney+ will overtake Netflix within the next decade. It makes sense for the company to prioritize its streaming initiatives as viewers transition away from traditional media platforms.
Discovery CEO David Zaslav says that when his company merges with WarnerMedia, they plan to spend $20 billion on content in the first year. In comparison, Netflix is spending nearly $14 billion on content this year.
The big bucks that Disney plans to spend can also be attributed to expensive sports streaming deals that include its renewed NFL agreement and new NHL deal. These deals run into hundreds of millions of dollars each year as part of long-term multi-year contracts.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the company also disclosed just how many films and TV shows it plans to release in 2022. Disney's Studios division plans to release some 50 titles for theatrical release, and on its direct-to-consumer platforms, while its General Entertainment division plans to produce or commission 60 unscripted series, 30 comedy series, 25 drama series, 15 docuseries/limited series, ten animated series and 5 made for TV movies in fiscal 2022.
Sources: Hollywood Reporter, ScreenRant