Disney Increases Spending Budget For Entertainment And Sports Divisions

TV & Film

Nov 25

The 2025 fiscal year came to a close on September 27, 2025, for the Walt Disney Company. Revenue for the year was up by 3%, hitting a total of $94.4 billion overall. Going forward, the platform is projected to increase its spending on entertainment and sports content to $24 billion in the fiscal year 2026, an increase of about $1 billion from fiscal year 2025. During the Wells Fargo Technology, Media, and Telecom Summit, Disney CFO Hugh Johnston spoke about the strategy and goals that the company will be focusing on in FY26.

Johnston explained that spending will be somewhat equally divided between sports and entertainment, though the latter “may grow a little faster than sports.” He continued (via Variety), “We have rights to succeed with respect to Disney content, but we need to supplement that with local content. So the strategy is very much to do that.”

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When Disney+ first rolled out, the company aimed to build a subscriber base and maintain it; subscriber numbers were needed to be profitable. Johnston lightly addressed this and where the company is looking to aim next, “The goal first was to achieve scale, and we did do that. That said, there’s still opportunity to expand on that sub base.”

Johnston reiterated Disney’s commitment to the IPs already owned by the company rather than looking to acquire more. They are looking to continue the evolution of the Disney+ app, wrapping the bundle offerings into a more streamlined experience in one app. For now, they are focusing on integrating Hulu more effectively into Disney+. On this note, Johnston said, “More than anything, we just need to get the technology, we need to get the product right.” No specific timeline was given regarding this project.

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The 2026 fiscal year for Disney is well underway. FY25 saw a 3% revenue increase overall for the company. Disney+ and Hulu ended with about 196 million subscribers, an increase of 12.4 million compared to Q3. Solely Disney+ subscriptions also increased from the previous quarter, hitting 132 million subscribers in the end. The company’s numbers are trending positively for the most part, keeping them on track to meet their financial goals in the next two years.

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