Disney’s U.K. Commissioning Arm Sees Revenue Drop by Over Half Following 2022’s All-Time High of $270 Million
Disney’s U.K. commissioning subsidiary Walt Disney EMEA Productions Limited has reported more than a 50% drop in revenue from the previous financial year.
The U.K.-based company, which commissions international productions and co-productions for Disney’s linear networks as well as streaming platform Disney+, reported revenues of £86 million ($110 million) for the year ending in Sept 2023, according to the latest financial report filed at U.K. business registrar Companies House last week.
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The figure marks a drop from the previous year’s reported revenue of £215 million ($270 million), which covered the year ending Oct. 2022 and marked an all-time high for the subsidiary. In the year ending Oct. 2021 – which was the first financial reporting year following the launch of Disney+ in the U.K. — the company reported revenues of £43 million.
According to the accompanying financial report, the subsidiary’s directors are “in the process of considering the company’s future” although for now they expect it to continue trading. The report also noted that the decrease in revenue is because “production work on most titles has completed.”
A rep for Disney EMEA told Variety: “Disney remains committed to creating quality storytelling, and our award-winning original local productions on Disney+ across EMEA, such as U.K. comedy ‘Extraordinary’ and Italian drama ‘The Good Mothers,’ are a testament to that. We have a fantastic slate of productions coming too in the months ahead, including ‘Becoming Karl Lagerfeld’ and ‘Rivals.’”
In fairness, Walt Disney EMEA Productions Limited’s figures don’t necessarily paint the whole picture — Disney’s U.K. operation includes dozens more standalone subsidiary companies it uses for international productions, meaning not all productions go through Walt Disney EMEA Productions Limited.
But the company’s financial report does note that some of the biggest risks facing the company are changes to U.K. and Europe-wide economic conditions as well as “substantial competition from alternative providers”
That seems to correspond with the shift in strategy that accompanied CEO Bob Iger’s return to the Mouse House at the end of 2022.
Following the launch of Disney+ in the U.K. in March 2020, a boom in local commissioning saw most of the big streaming platform enter an arms race for content, with players such as Disney+, Apple TV+, Netflix and Prime Video rushing to produce a glut of local content for local markets. Some of it paid off, with shows such as Netflix’s “Bridgerton,” Apple TV+’s “Slow Horses” and Disney+’s docu-series “Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story.” But there were also a number of flops, including Disney+’s U.K. original series “Wedding Season” and “The Full Monty” sequel.
Following “the Netflix correction” that saw Wall Street focus on the streamers’ bottom lines rather than subscriber numbers, many streamers have since reigned in their production spend and begun selling some of their original shows. Disney+ recently licensed U.K. original comedy “Extraordinary” to local networks for further windowing opportunities.
Earlier this month Iger explicitly stated that the company was reducing output on Disney+ particularly for Marvel titles. “We’re slowly going to decrease volume and go to probably about two TV series a year instead of what had become four and reduce our film output from maybe four a year to two, or a maximum of three,” the Disney CEO said during the company’s quarterly earnings call. “And we’re working hard on what that path is.”
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