Millennial Parents Opps: Disney shutting channels down to focus on Disney+

Disney+ is receiving the bulk of parent company Walt Disney's attention; the company will close 100 international TV channels this year in order to migrate to the streaming service.

Reportedly, Disney+ reached 100m subscribers despite the content production shutdown caused by the pandemic, largely due to movie releases.

iSpot reports that Disney's YTD national TV spend for Disney+ has reached approximately $52.7m, over double the approximately $21.9m it had spent by this point last year. The brand ended up spending approximately $111.2m on this channel last year, similarly over double the approximately $48.4m it spent in 2019. Disney+'s commercials of 2021 have targeted millennials (male skew) viewing shows such as NFL Football, College Basketball, The Voice, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and This Is Us.

According to Pathmatics, the brand has allocated roughly $96m toward digital ads since the beginning of 2021, less than a third of the roughly $302.2m it allocated within the same 2020 timeframe. Disney+'s estimated full-year 2020 spend more than tripled to $548.6m from that of $126.8m in 2019. The brand has earned around 9.4b digital impressions YTD via desktop video (56%), Facebook (17%), Instagram (13%), desktop display (7%), Twitter (6%), mobile display (1%) and mobile video (1%) ads. 95% of this year's desktop video ads have been placed site direct onto youtube.com.

Additionally, Magellan reveals Disney+ has aired 232 podcast ads within the past 12 months.

The brand typically targets parents, and its shift from digital to TV shows its leaders are more concerned with reaching millennials than Gen-Z. 

Agency & martech readers - This probably won't affect Disney's agency roster, which currently includes TBWA \ Chiat \ Day (creative), Essence (digital), Publicis North America (media) and OMD Entertainment (media).