Disney to Significantly Boost Content Spending in 2026 Compared to This Year

Disney is planning to spend more on content in fiscal 2026 than it did in fiscal 2025. The company expects to invest $24 billion across entertainment and sports, up $1 billion from last year’s $23 billion, according to CFO Hugh Johnston.

Johnston spoke about the plans at the Wells Fargo Technology, Media, and Telecom Summit in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

The $24 billion budget is split roughly evenly between sports, mainly through ESPN, and entertainment content. “I think that split will hold,” Johnston said, though he noted that spending on entertainment “may grow a little faster than sports.”

He also highlighted Disney’s focus on local content in some markets, explaining, “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.”

Disney’s content spending will continue to grow, but it won’t reach the record highs of previous years when media companies were aggressively creating original content to compete for streaming subscribers.

Johnston recalled that in fiscal 2022, Disney had planned to spend $33 billion. “A lot of people were overproducing,” he said, adding that the company “weren’t happy” with the quality of some of the content being released at the time.

The increased spending comes as Disney remains confident about its financial growth. In its fiscal fourth-quarter 2025 report, the company said it expects double-digit earnings per share growth over the next two years.

For fiscal 2026, Disney forecasts a 10% operating margin for Disney+ and Hulu, supported by streaming growth and recent price increases. The entertainment segment as a whole is expected to deliver double-digit operating income growth, “weighted to the second half of the year.”

Disney’s streaming business showed strong performance in the September quarter. Disney+ added 3.8 million subscribers, while Hulu gained 8.6 million, partly due to promotional pricing for the ESPN Unlimited/Disney+/Hulu bundle. Hulu also benefited from a deal with Charter to include Hulu with Spectrum TV Select.

Disney’s entertainment direct-to-consumer streaming revenue rose 8% to $6.25 billion, and operating income jumped 39% to $352 million. It will be the last quarter Disney publicly reports these subscriber numbers, following Netflix’s lead.

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