Disney to Close 100 Channels in 2021

The Walt Disney Company is planning to shut down 100 TV channels in 2021, as it drives forward a digital-first strategy with Disney+.

The Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Chapek announced the move while speaking at the JPMorgan 49th Annual Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference.

The company closed 30 channels last year, Chapek noted. “We plan to close 100 in 2021…. We will continue and continue at a robust rate.”

He added that the plan is to “continue to migrate to Disney+, the great majority of that content will migrate to Disney+. And again, the decisions that we make in individual channels and individual markets, and the timing of such, are sort of framed up by existing deals that we’ve gotten some of the constraints we’ve got there, but as you can see, that continues to be a core strategy for us as we pivot toward direct-to-consumer.”

When asked about the balance between the linear and digital DTC businesses, Chapek said: “Balance is a good word. To some extent, our linear businesses right now are just generating a ton of cash flow, which for a business that’s emerging from a very tough year, from a Covid standpoint where we took on some debt to give us a better cash position pandemic-related, I think it’s nice to have a strong cash flow business like those linear businesses. And frankly, they’re also funding our DTC investments. That’d be pretty difficult without that cash flow.

“But over time, we’re in a multiyear transition to a very strong DTC business. And the pace of that could accelerate as we get out of Covid and as the consumers vote with their pocketbooks to go direct-to-consumer. And so as I’ve said before, we don’t want to be on the back end of that wave. We want to be on the front end of that wave. So if anything, we’ll lead it a little bit, but we’re only going to do that if we can maximize the long-term value to shareholders.”