News Walt Disney Company plans to spend $17 billion at Walt Disney World over the next ten years

[doctornick]

You're quite the optimist, believing that Disney+ is ever going to be in the black.

It’s not really a big stretch. All they need is one more price jump of a few dollars a month and retaining most of their subscribers. If D+ were priced the same as HBO Max or Netflix, it would be profitable.

Hulu has already been profitable.

Edit: just to put some numbers, I’m talking about D+ without ads being priced around $13.99 or $14.99 or so. That’s not some crazy MK monthly cost

 

[Tha Realest]

But that’s not CapEx, right? That’s (I think) called Operational Expenditures.

I don’t think the $17 billion differentiated in the two, hence the confusion. “Investment” has been butchered beyond belief in recent years, so an “investment” in the workforce, for example, could be viewed as an operational expense rather than capex.

 

[Nubs70]

$17 billion is A LOT of money. It can buy a fifth park, expansions and plusing at all existing parks, new hotels, new transportation options, a train station, and more. I’m excited to see what they will announce after they budget it.

17 Billion over 10 years is government apeak.
If evenly distributed, that's only 1.7B/year, crazy enough to say but that's not that much money for a greenfield expansion.

Inflation will eat away at.the purchasing power.

 

[peter11435]

17 Billion over 10 years is government apeak.
If evenly distributed, that's only 1.7B/year, crazy enough to say but that's not that much money for a greenfield expansion.

Inflation will eat away at.the purchasing power.

1.7B per year is more than they have been investing at WDW.

 

[Tha Realest]

$17 billion seems like such a fantastical number when they are cutting thousands of jobs, eliminating entire divisions, have numerous attractions shuttered, and nothing appears to be shovel ready on the immediate horizon.

It’s like me declaring my annual diet that’s going to start and totally keep happening for the months after Jan 1.

 

[Nubs70]

1.7B per year is more than they have been investing at WDW.

What is considered "Investing"

One could frame the recent wage increases as an "investment" in the workforce.(if you fail to understand the definition of investment or like to use the phrase of investment to deceive the public)

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

$17B is enough money to invest substantially in the parks but it's still unclear how they're going to allocate those investments. If I had a wishlist though it would definitely be:

Imagination Rehaul (making it a proper E-ticket and returning Dreamfinder)

Spaceship Earth Major Refurb

That ***** Yeti

Plus DINOSAUR— return the old, darker colors and maybe refurb some of the AAs or add some new effects

Replace Dinorama

Retheme Animation Courtyard

Retheme Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge from the loathsome sequel trilogy to include some of the more beloved Star Wars lore

Villains Land at Magic Kingdom

Beyond Big Thunder doesn't particularly interest me, it's fine but doesn't feel like it warrants a whole land alongside other major story genres (funny enough, superheroes/comics would actually be perfect at MK), and the yeti is obviously a....stretch given Disney's past, but these are imo very reasonable asks I have for Disney given the budget they announced.

If you said they’d spend that in 5?…maybe even 8 years?…then they might check off that list.

But the 10 years really seems like a placeholder in the grand scheme of Bob’s “ego reclamation project”

As usual…I DO hope I’m wrong about that.

But what they really need to do (other than a real OT land…that’s the most obvious thing EVER…) is get back to B and C tickets that are just built…no need for geekcon/child con (d23) to have a 2 year PR runup.

You want an encanto or a coco ride? Good. Build it. Put up the walls tonight and have it open by October 2024.

Impossible?!?!

No…WDI pulled that kinda thing off in the past. Without computer aided design and fabrication.

Because management wanted them too. So they did.

Bobs mistake - amongst many - in the parks is not believing in theme park rot/stagnation. It’s real and it’s not going away. From Luna park…to infinity…and beyond.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

$17 billion seems like such a fantastical number when they are cutting thousands of jobs, eliminating entire divisions, have numerous attractions shuttered, and nothing appears to be shovel ready on the immediate horizon.

It’s like me declaring my annual diet that’s going to start and totally keep happening for the months after Jan 1.

You’re just NEGATIVE!!!!!

 

[bcoachable]

You're quite the optimist, believing that Disney+ is ever going to be in the black.

Streaming in general is sputtering. When all you had were places like Netflix that combined content from tons of different providers, that was one thing. Now everybody and his brother has their own streaming platform and each has a specific niche with one specific brand or set of brands to sell. And people are growing weary of shelling out the same amount of money they used to spend on a cable bill to buy all their streaming platforms. Is anything actually drawing people to Paramount+ besides Star Trek, for example?

I think some sort of seismic shift is coming in the streaming wars. I'm not sure what it will be, but I know that the current trajectory is not sustainable. And I don't think Disney+ is positioned to be one of the winners right now.

I’ve got an idea- let’s open up a “general store” where we provide all the streaming services for one subscription price! Then, when people log in, they could choose from- say ESPN, or a Disney channel, while also having access to all the Peacock and Universal products as well… we could call it “Spectrum” and charge $250 a month for it…
Whose with me!!!!

 

[Jrb1979]

I’ve got an idea- let’s open up a “general store” where we provide all the streaming services for one subscription price! Then, when people log in, they could choose from- say ESPN, or a Disney channel, while also having access to all the Peacock and Universal products as well… we could call it “Spectrum” and charge $250 a month for it…
Whose with me!!!!

No thanks. I will stick to my free streaming services like Roku.

 

[drizgirl]

Exactly. Job creation.

That’s why they are firing 7000 people.

Seriously. You can't make this stuff up.

 

[doctornick]

Exactly. Job creation.

That’s why they are firing 7000 people.

Well I think the premise of what he was saying was job creation in Florida not necessarily net for the company. So I guess people getting shifted to Lake Nona would count as “additional” jobs for Florida.

 

[GhostHost1000]

You’re just NEGATIVE!!!!!

We can’t have negativity here. Some get mad lol

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Also, I remember, Eisner cancelled all (or most) projects that were under development under his predecessor when he first became CEO. He, then, relaunched major projects under the Disney Decade banner some time later. So, this makes sense that Iger would do something similar. The bad news is that these things take time. So, don't expect it to be immediate, but a new Disney DexDe is probably in the early planning stages.

And, speaking of Eisner, I also remember when AK opened. In an interview at that time, he said he “knows the theme of the fifth WDW theme park” and was discussing with Imagineering. I would love to know what that was. I don’t think it was ever revealed to the public. Of course, it was probably cancelled before it ever even started.

Iger now is nothing like Eisner then…for many reasons…not just personality differences.
The world is different

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

1.7B per year is more than they have been investing at WDW.

They did not say wdw. There’s room for spin there - as there always is.

A ship homeported in canaveral is an easy jump.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

You're quite the optimist, believing that Disney+ is ever going to be in the black.

Streaming in general is sputtering. When all you had were places like Netflix that combined content from tons of different providers, that was one thing. Now everybody and his brother has their own streaming platform and each has a specific niche with one specific brand or set of brands to sell. And people are growing weary of shelling out the same amount of money they used to spend on a cable bill to buy all their streaming platforms. Is anything actually drawing people to Paramount+ besides Star Trek, for example?

I think some sort of seismic shift is coming in the streaming wars. I'm not sure what it will be, but I know that the current trajectory is not sustainable. And I don't think Disney+ is positioned to be one of the winners right now.

Here’s where we agree…what a world?!?

It’s not really a big stretch. All they need is one more price jump of a few dollars a month and retaining most of their subscribers. If D+ were priced the same as HBO Max or Netflix, it would be profitable.

Hulu has already been profitable.

Edit: just to put some numbers, I’m talking about D+ without ads being priced around $13.99 or $14.99 or so. That’s not some crazy MK monthly cost

The streaming model just does not have the revenue potential as the old cable model as it stands.
Cable was a captive audience…retail was brick and mortar so advertisers had no choice…

Streaming should be seen as a “necessary component” to big company…not a profit generator.

Bob knows this. He’s a tv guy. It’s just the constant spin about “potential” that Wall Street spins to cash out on each day now.

Nothing to see here

 

[Basil of Baker Street]

You're quite the optimist, believing that Disney+ is ever going to be in the black.

Streaming in general is sputtering. When all you had were places like Netflix that combined content from tons of different providers, that was one thing. Now everybody and his brother has their own streaming platform and each has a specific niche with one specific brand or set of brands to sell. And people are growing weary of shelling out the same amount of money they used to spend on a cable bill to buy all their streaming platforms. Is anything actually drawing people to Paramount+ besides Star Trek, for example?

I think some sort of seismic shift is coming in the streaming wars. I'm not sure what it will be, but I know that the current trajectory is not sustainable. And I don't think Disney+ is positioned to be one of the winners right now.

People I know only pay for Paramount+ for the Yellowstone series. When it's done I think P+ will lose subscribers as well.

 

[drizgirl]

Well I think the premise of what he was saying was job creation in Florida not necessarily net for the company. So I guess people getting shifted to Lake Nona would count as “additional” jobs for Florida.

That’s some serious spin on their part if that’s what they meant.

 

[Andrew C]

People I know only pay for Paramount+ for the Yellowstone series. When it's done I think P+ will lose subscribers as well.

Yellowstone is not on Paramount+. It is on the standard Paramount Network cable channel and Peacock owns the streaming rights, so it is available there. The Yellowstone spin-offs do stream on Paramount+, however.

 

[Trauma]

People I know only pay for Paramount+ for the Yellowstone series. When it's done I think P+ will lose subscribers as well.

Yellowstone was the only reason I had P+