Disney is banking on Taylor Swift's popularity the sum of $75 million
By Brian Miller
If there is anyone that is hotter than Taylor Swift right now, I'm not sure who it might be and Disney is banking on that popularity.
It was announced recently that Taylor's "Eras Tour" would be coming to Disney+ soon. The entire concert will also include four new song additions which I guess is a good thing considering the money dropped.
Disney reportedly spent $75 million to secure the rights to the global concert hit. It was reported that Disney was in a bidding war between Universal and Netflix.
My question is why is Taylor Swift not part of Disney? We all know that Swift learned her life lesson when her music was stolen by her label. It was a point of contention that led her to release "RED-Taylor's Version" so that she could own the rights to at least part of them.
Taylor has been front and center most of the NFL season given her relationship with Kansas City Chiefs TE, Travis Kelce. Add the Era's Tour to the list and her continuing to grow astronomic popularity and the queen of princesses would make for an incredible partner with the House of Mouse.
The concert film brought in over $260 million combined at U.S. and International box offices.
Disney is banking on Taylor's popularity to add more subscribers to its flailing streaming service. Disney+ has gone through some economic issues over the last several years in part due to spending far too much on programming that has failed and not enticed new subscribers.
Disney is hoping subscribers will opt into the lower "ad-supported" option, currently $7.99 instead of the $6.00 more ad-free version because ads bring in more money to the company to support Disney+.
With Eras soon to premiere on the service, Disney could see a big uptick in subscriptions but that will also come with a big drop after it has been watched. It is a short-term solution for a bigger problem and it will be interesting to see if Disney can make back the $75 million investment in subscriptions.
Making the entire thing harder to predict is that the Eras Tour is available to rent already from several streaming services including VUDU, Amazon, and Apple TV, albeit without the 4 extra songs, at a price of $19.89.