Credit: DisneyThe Walt Disney Company is continuing to see success at the Disney Parks and Resorts, and with the streaming service, Disney+. But how has the ongoing pandemic continued to impact the variety of films and series that Disney has in the works on a year-round basis?
Now, The Walt Disney Company Chief Executive Officer Bob Chapek provides some insight into COVID’s impact on film and television production worldwide.
Today, during the Goldman Sachs 30th annual Communacopia Conference, Disney CEO Bob Chapek shared some details regarding how the COVID Delta variant impacted Disney productions…and how Disney still has so many productions in the works currently that they are still setting up for success.
“Something that’s actually impacting us across the globe [is] COVID-induced production delays, which then is a kink in the supply chain for new content coming to the service [i.e., Disney+]. Now, this is very short term. In fact, it’s so short-term that right now our studio alone has 61 new movies in production, and they’ve got 17 different episodic programs in production. Our TV group has hundreds of new programs in production, and we’ve got over 200 local productions across the globe in production.
So the supply chain is healthy, just like we talked about last December, it’s flowing, but the resurgence of COVID and Delta did impact some of our productions so that we’ve got a lighter product quarter in Q4 than we might have expected. All to say, again, we’re very bullish and confident about our long-term sub growth, but we’re going to see a little bit more noise than I think maybe the street expects in terms of our ultimate projections quarter to quarter.”
As stated above, the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted some of Disney’s productions, so, as the Disney CEO shared, Disney+ has a “lighter product quarter” in Q4. Specific productions have needed to be temporarily shut down due to COVID, and Disney and other production companies have needed to keep health and safety as a top priority to keep going.
However, The Walt Disney Company is still very confident about the long-term subscriber growth for the streaming service.
There is still even more coming to Disney+ throughout the rest of 2021. Disney just announced that the company will be celebrating Disney+ Day on November 12 this year, and with it will come a multitude of new content on the streaming service. You can read all about the company-wide Disney+ Day celebration here!
What’s your favorite Disney+ film or series that the streaming service has to offer? Let us know in the comments!