The Walt Disney Company has reached a deal to outsource its physical media production and distribution — including DVDs and Blu-Rays — to a competitor, Sony.
The move represents the latest cost saving humiliation from CEO Bob Iger, who has enacted deep budget cuts across Disney in an attempt to pull the once-formidable company out of financial hardship.
The Digital Bits was the first to report the deal, saying the new agreement will operate on a licensing model. Sony will market, sell, and distribute new Disney releases as well as catalog titles on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K Ultra DVD via retailers and distributors in the U.S. and Canada.
As part of the Disney and Sony deal, Disney is shutting down its Disney Movie Club after more than two decades. The Disney Movie Club offered members home video exclusives and other deals.
It remains unclear if or how many Disney employees will lose their jobs as a result of the Sony agreement.
Last year, Disney eliminated 7,000 jobs worldwide as part of Iger’s cost cutting.
The layoffs plus internal restructuring were part of Iger’s goal to save $7.5 billion. But Iger has stated more reductions are coming, to the tune of $2 billion.
Disney’s catalog is perhaps the largest and most valuable in Hollywood. In addition to classic Disney movies and TV shows, the catalog contains all the titles from the 20th Century Fox acquisition.
Like other legacy studios, Disney is betting the farm on streaming, pouring billions of dollars a year into its Disney+ and Hulu services. But those services are still losing money at a time when Disney is hurting financially from the tens of millions of Americans who are cutting the cable cord.
As Breitbart News reported, Disney has begun outsourcing some of its animation to Canada — a blow to the studio’s century-long reputation as an animation pioneer and powerhouse.
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