The Walt Disney Company announced its Q2 earnings results on Wednesday.
Disneyland Resort/Christian Thompson/The Walt Disney Company
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Disneyland Resort/Christian Thompson/The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company announced its Q2 earnings results on Wednesday.
Disneyland Resort/Christian Thompson/The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company reported a 13% increase in quarterly earnings on Wednesday – to $21.8 billion.
Disney’s broad, global portfolio includes theme parks, resorts, movies, streaming and broadcast channels including Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ and ABC.
Attendance at theme parks and resorts boosted revenue this quarter. Disney’s Parks, Experiences and Products division increased profits by 20% to $2.2 billion.
Disney’s live services perform better than streaming
Profits are not evenly distributed across Disney’s various businesses.
Disney+ lost about 4 million paid subscribers this quarter, down to 157.8 million. ESPN+ increased slightly to 25.3 million subscribers, and Hulu remained steady at 48.2 million subscribers.
Bob Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Company, attributes Disney+’s decline in part to the “maturity process”. Streaming service launched in 2019, and at first, Iger said their goal was to “flood the digital shelves as much as possible.” That’s led to a lot of content that isn’t growing in subscriptions, he says, and the company plans to cut production.
Late last year, Disney+ increased the price of its ad-free service from $7.99 to $10.99. Rick Munarriz, a analyst with The Motley Fool, saying it’s “just three dollars, but it’s still a sizable 38% jump.” Today, Iger said it is planning another price hike. Munarriz thinks offering less new content while raising prices could be a “risky” business move for Disney. “It would take a lot of pixie dust to make that delicate balance fly,” he told NPR.
Earlier this year, Disney announced plans to lay off about 7,000 employees worldwide in an effort to cut more than $5 billion in costs. The move includes consolidating film and television production and distribution divisions.
The entertainment industry riots
Today’s earnings report comes at a time of widespread layoffs in the entertainment industry. global supreme cut 25% of its employees. Warner Bros. Discovery is face to face billions of dollars in debt.
Munarriz said that despite Disney’s own layoffs, the company is in a better position than most of its competitors: “Disney’s ecosystem helps smooth out volatility in different segments It’s not a perfect report, but it could have been much worse.”
Disney’s feud with Florida
In a Q&A with analysts at the end of today’s call, Iger addressed Disney’s ongoing struggle competition with the state of Florida.
Disney recently filed the First Amendment lawsuit against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, claiming the company was the victim of what it called a targeted “government retaliation campaign”.
Like NPR’s Greg Allen reportThe lawsuit is “the latest act in a feud that began more than a year ago when the former Disney CEO said he would work to overturn a law Prohibit discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools. Law, ‘Parents’ Rights in the Education Act,’ was called ‘Don’t Say Gay’ by critics.”
DeSantis continues to pass a bill stripped of Disney’s autonomy.
Iger sounded both exasperated and determined today when he talked about Florida. He pointed out that Disney is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the state and has about 75,000 employees.
“We certainly never expected to have to defend our business interests in federal court, especially given the excellent relationship with the state as we have had for more than 50 years,” he said. via”.
This story has been edited by Ravenna Koenig.
