Seven years ago, suggesting Disney should shut down Disney+ would have been enough to get you laughed out of nearly any boardroom in Hollywood.
Streaming wasn’t just Disney’s future—it was the future. The company invested billions into building Disney+, reorganized its entire media division around direct-to-consumer entertainment, and willingly gave up lucrative licensing deals to keep Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars, and Disney Animation content exclusive to its own platform.
Now, a respected Wall Street analyst is arguing Disney should do the unthinkable.
Not improve Disney+.
Not merge it into another service.
Not simply raise prices again.
Instead, he believes Disney should abandon streaming altogether.
It’s a staggering proposal that has already sparked discussion across the entertainment industry. While Disney has given absolutely no indication that it intends to move in this direction, the fact that analysts are openly debating the possibility shows just how dramatically the streaming conversation has evolved.
A complete reversal of Disney’s strategy
According to a new report from Wells Fargo analyst Steven Cahall, Disney may actually be worth significantly more if it exited the streaming business entirely.
Rather than continuing to compete directly with Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, and other digital platforms, Cahall argues Disney should return to the business model that fueled decades of success: producing premium entertainment while licensing that content to distributors around the world.
It’s an approach that sounds almost old-fashioned today.
Ironically, it also happens to be the strategy that made Disney one of the most powerful entertainment companies on Earth long before streaming ever existed.
The analyst estimates that abandoning the expensive direct-to-consumer model could potentially boost Disney’s stock by roughly 40 percent while allowing management to devote greater attention to its intellectual property and rapidly growing Experiences division.
For investors, that’s a remarkable claim.
For Disney fans, it’s difficult to even imagine.
Disney+ changed everything
When Disney+ debuted in late 2019, it represented one of the biggest shifts in Disney’s modern history.
Instead of selling movies and television shows to other platforms, Disney began keeping nearly all of its biggest brands under one roof.
Marvel Studios productions became Disney+ exclusives.
Star Wars expanded with original series.
Pixar created streaming-first projects.
Disney Animation and legacy Disney films became cornerstones of the service.
Subscribers flocked to the platform almost immediately.
The launch exceeded expectations, and Disney quickly became Netflix’s biggest traditional media challenger.
But building a global streaming platform isn’t cheap.
Disney invested enormous sums into technology, original programming, worldwide expansion, customer support, advertising, and infrastructure.
At the same time, the company willingly walked away from billions in potential licensing revenue because it wanted its content available only on Disney+.
The assumption was simple.
Eventually, enough subscribers would make those sacrifices worthwhile.
Today, that calculation looks more complicated than it did seven years ago.
The economics are changing
Streaming has matured.
Subscriber growth has slowed across much of the industry.
Companies that once celebrated adding millions of subscribers each quarter are now placing far greater emphasis on profitability.
Disney has already made several adjustments to its own strategy.
Subscription prices have increased.
Advertising-supported plans have launched.
Bundles have become more prominent.
Executives now spend far more time discussing operating income than subscriber totals.
That’s why Cahall’s report has attracted attention.
Rather than suggesting another tweak to Disney’s streaming model, he’s questioning whether the model itself still makes financial sense.
According to his estimates, Disney could generate more than $15 billion annually in licensing revenue by fiscal year 2028 if it returned to distributing content through outside partners instead of operating Disney+ itself.
It’s a dramatic shift in thinking.
Disney’s greatest strength isn’t technology
Unlike Netflix, Disney was never built around streaming technology.
Its greatest asset has always been storytelling.
The company owns some of the most recognizable entertainment brands in history.
Marvel.
Star Wars.
Pixar.
Disney Animation.
20th Century Studios.
National Geographic.
Those franchises remain enormously valuable regardless of where audiences watch them.
That’s the central point behind Cahall’s argument.
Rather than spending billions maintaining a streaming platform, Disney could simply sell its premium content to companies that already specialize in distribution.
In theory, Disney would reduce costs while continuing to profit from its unmatched library.
Whether that actually proves more profitable remains open for debate.
But it represents a fundamentally different way of viewing Disney’s future.
Could Disney really abandon Disney+?
At this point, it seems extremely unlikely.
Disney+ has become deeply integrated into nearly every part of the company’s entertainment strategy.
Original Marvel series debut there.
Star Wars storytelling continues there.
Pixar experiments there.
The service also works alongside Hulu and ESPN in Disney’s growing streaming bundle.
Walking away would require far more than flipping a switch.
It would involve renegotiating licensing agreements around the world, restructuring entire business divisions, and potentially reversing years of corporate planning.
That’s not something companies typically do overnight.
Still, history has shown that no business strategy lasts forever.
Cable television once appeared unstoppable.
DVD sales dominated home entertainment.
Movie rental stores seemed permanent.
Consumer habits change.
Technology changes.
Business models change.
The streaming industry itself has evolved dramatically since Disney+ first launched.
Why fans should pay attention
Disney fans may see Disney+ primarily as the home for Marvel shows, Star Wars series, classic animated films, and new originals.
Investors look at it differently.
They see operating margins.
Infrastructure costs.
Content spending.
Subscriber retention.
Licensing opportunities.
Those perspectives don’t always align.
That’s why reports like this can sound shocking to audiences even though they’re grounded in financial analysis rather than entertainment strategy.
Disney isn’t preparing to shut down Disney+.
There has been no announcement suggesting such a move.
Executives continue investing in streaming while developing new original programming across the platform.
Even so, the emergence of this conversation is significant.
Just a few years ago, Wall Street’s biggest question was whether Disney could catch Netflix.
Today, at least one influential analyst is asking whether Disney should stop trying altogether.
That’s an extraordinary change in perspective.
Whether Cahall’s proposal ever gains traction is almost beside the point.
The real story is that one of Hollywood’s biggest streaming success stories is now being evaluated through an entirely different lens.
For a company that helped redefine the streaming era, that’s a conversation few people could have imagined when Disney+ first launched.
