The Huge Project That Bob Iger SCRAPPED at Disney

Bob Iger has been back at The Walt Disney Company for a little while now, and he’s already made some BIG changes.

Though initially started by former CEO Bob Chapek, Iger has more formally announced job layoffs throughout the Company. He has also announced a cut in spending of billions of dollars, has cut the metaverse division that Chapek created, and majorly restructured the Walt Disney Company. Another big change was made that is flying under the radar for many.

Back in August of 2022 (when Chapek was still CEO) a new plan was announced to potentially create a Disney membership program. Initially, the program (once referred to colloquially as “Disney Prime”) was introduced as one that could potentially offer discounts, special perks, and more to customers who subscribe to the service.

Individuals would pay a fee to get discounts and access to certain things, similar to how Amazon Prime members may for certain membership benefits.

The membership was initially aimed at encouraging consumers to spend more. Plus, it could help Disney learn more about its customers’ behavior by seeing what they buy, whether they visit the parks, what they’re consuming, etc.

The ultimate goal was for Disney to use the data to make recommendations based on customers’ preferences. 

In October of 2022, still under Chapek, we learned that plans for the service had changed a bit. Chapek shared that the membership could connect Disney+ and the Disney parks. Those who spent lots of time at Avengers Campus in Disney California Adventure Park, for example, could get Marvel-focused recommendations when they returned home.

The service would also have a shopping element incorporated into Disney+. In October of 2022, Chapek said they were “putting the arms and legs on it right now inside [their] own technical groups.” But later, under a different CEO, things have changed.

As part of the 7,000 job cuts at Disney, all of the members of the metaverse division created by Chapek (save for one) lost their jobs, according to The Wall Street Journal. Essentially, that entire “next-gen storytelling” unit has been eliminated. Along with that change has come the end of the Amazon Prime-style Disney membership.

The Wall Street Journal reports the effort toward creating that membership program “has been abandoned, according to people familiar with the matter.”

Mike White was the head of the next-generation storytelling unit and had been involved in the effort to design that membership program. Though White remains at Disney (in a role that is not yet clear), the division he was once a head of has been eliminated so it makes sense that the membership program he was working on has also been scrapped.

That doesn’t mean Disney couldn’t revive this membership idea in the future or transform it in some major way, but for now, it seems the idea of an Amazon Prime-type membership that would incorporate various Disney apps/services has reached its end under returning CEO Bob Iger.

We’ll continue to look for updates on this and let you know what we find.

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