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The Walt Disney Company plans to spend in 2022 fiscal year $ 33 billion on content, including sports rights — an amount that is $ 8 billion more than what it did in 2021, according to the annual report of the company put out last week.
The annual report, which was posted on US’ markets regulator SEC website, stated that the increase in content spending was “driven by higher spend to support our DTC (direct-to-consumer) expansion and generally assumes no significant disruptions to production due to COVID-19”.
Variety interpreted this increase in content spending as underlining how Disney is approaching direct-to-consumer content as a high priority, expanding its investment in streaming with a sense of urgency compared to its linear TV business.
Media reports earlier in the year highlighted that Disney planned to shutter many linear TV channels in Asia, including in India where some of the English GECs under the Star brand could be discontinued.
Some data gleaned by Indianbroadcastingworld.com from the Disney annual report highlighted that the company currently expects its fiscal 2022 capital expenditures to be approximately $6.1 billion compared to fiscal 2021 capital expenditures of $3.6 billion.
The increase in capital expenditures is due to higher spending on cruise ship fleet expansion, corporate facilities and production facilities and technology at the DMED segment.
Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution (DMED) brings together the company’s best-in-class product, technology, and commercialization teams into one global organization.
The Walt Disney Company, together with the subsidiaries through which businesses are conducted, is a diversified worldwide entertainment company with operations in the DMED and Disney Parks, Experiences and Products (DPEP) segments.
Disney said the advertising expense for fiscal 2021, 2020 and 2019 was $5.5 billion, $4.7 billion and $4.3 billion, respectively. The increase in advertising expense for fiscal 2021 compared to fiscal 2020 was due to higher spend for DTC streaming services.
