The Walt Disney Co. plans to increase its spending on content next year by $1 billion to a total of $24 billion, underscoring how the competition for consumer attention remains fierce – and expensive.
“We expect to invest approximately $24 billion in content across Entertainment and Sports in fiscal 2026, an increase of $1 billion compared to the prior year, as we continue to invest in high quality sports rights at ESPN, new and existing franchises at our film studio, and television content — all of which support our integrated businesses, including our direct-to-consumer services,” said Disney CEO Bob Iger and CFO Hugh Johnston in prepared commentary Thursday morning.
The company disclosed the increase in its latest quarterly earnings report, in which it reported revenues of $22.5 billion and segment operating income of $3.5 billion. The company’s streaming business had a particularly strong quarter, with Disney+ subscribers rising by 3.8 million compared to Q3 to 132 million, and Disney+ and Hulu subscribers rising by 12.4 million to 196 million.
Direct-to-consumer revenue rose by 8 percent in the quarter to $6.2 billion, with operating income rising by 39 percent to $352 million.
The 10-digit increase in content spending will bolster ESPN’s lineup of live sports (the company has cut back on some rights deals, as with UFC and Formula 1, even as it inked new expanded deals with the likes of the NBA and WNBA), as well as feature film franchises, and original content for Disney+, Hulu and ABC.
The news from Disney also comes just a few days after Paramount CEO David Ellison told Wall Street analysts that his company expects to increase its content spend by $1.5 billion as it seeks to make a mark in the sports and entertainment space.
The one caveat to the burst in content spending? A lot of that expense is coming from sports rights, rather than entertainment programming, in a possible warning sign to Hollywood.
