Disney is taking a note out of Warner Bros. Discovery notebook, as the company announced it will cut content from Disney+ and Hulu on their latest investor call. In addition to removing content from Disney+ and other streaming services, the House of Mouse also told investors they would be producing less content moving forward.

No company is an island in the age of financial capitalism, and even powerhouses such as Disney need to justify their business strategies to outside investors. In the latest Disney investor call, last Wednesday, May 10, the company commented on Disney+ recently losing more than two million subscribers, the service’s first significant drop in clients since its 2019 release. To diminish expenses, Disney CEO Bob Iger assured investors the company would be more careful about green-lighting new TV shows and movies, as all the content made for Disney+ should be aimed at retaining or growing the streamer’s subscribers. As Iger puts it:

“We realized that we made a lot of content that is not necessarily driving sub-growth, and we’re getting much more surgical about what it is we make. So as we look to reduce content spend, we’re looking to reduce it in a way that should not have any impact at all on subs.”

No one can argue with Iger’s logic when it comes to directing money into creating products that are safer to sell. In addition, Disney's cost-cutting strategy should also lead to combining Disney+ and Hulu so that the company can focus its marketing services on a single streaming service. However, the investor call also featured disturbing announcements, as Disney promised to purge a lot of content from Disney+, locking movies and series on the infamous Disney Vault.

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Image via Disney+

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The Disney Vault Is Bad for Films and TV Shows Preservation

Since Disney began to dominate the home media market thanks to its line of animated movies, the company started to take some titles off the shelves purposely. Since everyone knew Disney movies would be available on physical media for a limited time, consumers were eager to buy the company’s products before they were locked inside the Disney Vault and disappeared from the market until a re-release, which could take decades to happen.

The advent of streaming platforms completely changed the home media business, and Disney even promised to add its full animation catalog to Disney+, taking movies out of the vault for the first time in years. However, the House of Mouse also chose to lock in some classic 20th Century movies after the Disney-Fox merger. Still, the bigger chunk of Disney content was available either on Disney+ or Hulu, which is excellent for giving older productions a chance to win the hearts of younger generations.

Unfortunately, Disney is preparing to make many movies and TV shows inaccessible. During the meeting, CFO Christine McCarthy says the company “will be removing certain content from our streaming platforms and currently expect to take an impairment charge of approximately $1.5 to $1.8 billion.” An impairment charge is used by a company to get rid of unprofitable products, taking them out of the market for good. It’s a process similar to what Warner Bros. Discovery did with Batgirl and other Max productions, which risk never being available to the public. So, while the strategy might make sense for executives that ignore the artistic value of films and TV shows, the content purge means many productions could be lost forever.

There’s still no information on what exactly Disney intends to remove from Disney+ and Hulu, but as the story develops, you can expect to read all about it here at Collider.