Disney is set to take a $1.5 billion write-down during the fiscal third quarter after the entertainment giant removed more than 30 shows off of Disney+ and Hulu last month in an effort to bring down costs, according to a Friday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
On May 26, Disney pulled shows like The World According to Jeff Goldblum, Y: The Last Man, The Mighty Ducks, Turner & Hooch, Willow, Maggie, Dollface and the 2022 Cheaper By the Dozen off of its streaming services. During the company’s May earnings call, Disney CFO Christine McCarthy said the company expected to take on upwards of $1.8 billion in impairment charges as a result of removing the content.
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Friday’s SEC filing said Disney is “continuing its review” and is expecting to remove additional produced content from its streaming services during the third quarter, with those removals expected to incur an additional $400 million write-down.
Disney’s direct-to-consumer streaming losses have shrunk in recent months, as the company reported $659 million in losses during the second fiscal quarter, down from $1.1 billion reported in the previous quarter. But even as Disney takes on the write-downs related to removing content, McCarthy noted during the earnings call that Disney is expecting streaming losses to widen by $100 million during the current quarter.
In removing programming from Disney+ and Hulu, Disney is also following Warner Bros. Discovery in an effort to cut streaming costs. The David Zaslav–run company removed shows like Westworld, The Nevers, Generation, FBoy Island, Legendary, The Time Traveler’s Wife, The Gordita Chronicles and Raised by Wolves from its streaming service, then called HBO Max and later licensed much of that programming to Roku and Tubi.
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