Disney boss Bob Iger vows to spend LESS on making new movies and TV to rein in ... trends now
Disney boss Bob Iger has vowed to cut costs across the billion-dollar company as it makes promises to spend less on making new movies and TV shows as the fate of Hulu remains unclear.
The changes are part of the company's plans to navigate the new media environment and decline of linear TV, a theatrical film business with an uncertain future and a growing streaming business.
Iger said that the company would specifically look at how much spending is going toward certain content including fewer sequels and making a judgement following the review, according to Hollywood Reporter.
'I'm really pleased that the support that I'm getting from the content creators of the company is significant and real, and it comes in the form of reducing the expense per content, whether it's a TV series or a film, where costs have just skyrocketed in a huge way and not a supportable way in my opinion. They all agree to that,' Iger said.
Disney boss Bob Iger has vowed to cut costs across the billion-dollar company as it makes promises to spend less on making new movies and TV shows as the fate of Hulu remains unclear
He added that it was also about 'understanding how much volume we need, reducing how much we make. So, it's how much we spend on what we make and how much we make.'
The potential for selling content elsewhere remained on the table, however.
'And as we look to reduce the content that we're creating for our own platforms, there probably are opportunities to license to third parties,' Iger said.
'For a while that was verboten or something we couldn't possibly do because we were so favoring our own streaming platforms.
'But if we get to a point where we need less content for those platforms, and we still have the capability of producing that content, why not use it to grow revenue? And that's what we would likely do.'
Marvel, Star Wars, Frozen and others would remain exclusive to Disney owned platforms Iger stating that the company has the 'most powerful brand' in family entertainment.
But sequels, much to the relief of some, are expected to take a backseat.
'What we have to look at [with] Marvel is not necessarily the volume of Marvel storytelling, but how many times we go back to the well on certain characters,' Iger said.
'Sequels typically work well for us, but do you need a third or a fourth for instance? Or is it time to turn to other characters? There's nothing in any way inherently off in terms of the Marvel brand. I think we just have to look at what characters and stories we are mining.
'If you look at the trajectory of Marvel over the next five years, you'll see a lot of newness. Now, we're going to turn back to the Avengers franchise, but with a whole set of different Avengers, as an example.'
Iger also added that a goal would be to focus on high-quality programming, calling out not only the core franchises, but also FX, which he praised as both a producer of content and as a brand.
'You know, there's so much consumer choice right now, and it comes back to is what is differentiated,' Iger said.
'That's one thing obviously we have talked about is those brands: Star Wars, Marvel and Disney and Pixar, for instance. But quality is also a differentiator.
'I think HBO proved that well, you know, in their halcyon days when high quality programming made a big difference, and not volume.
'Because the streaming platforms require so much volume, one has to question whether that's the right direction to go, or if can you be more curated more — I used the word
