The Walt Disney Company has released its second fiscal quarter results (January 1 to April 1). This is the first fiscal quarter entirely under Bob Iger’s leadership since the ouster of Bob Chapek.
TWDC reports $21.82 billion in revenue, ahead of analysts’ forecasts. The parks brought in $7.78 billion, boosted by growth at Shanghai Disney Resort and Disneyland Paris as well as Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, which contributed to a 23% increase in operating profit over the previous year.
During Bob Iger’s call with shareholders, he mentioned expansion plans under consideration for the parks: “And we have a number of other opportunities for growth and expansion in our parks… and we are closely evaluating where it makes the most sense to direct future investments.
Disney + results
Disney+ lost 4 million subscribers and $659 million, compared to the division’s $1.1 billion loss in the prior quarter. “We are pleased with our accomplishments this quarter, including the improved financial performance of our streaming business, which reflect the strategic changes we have made across the company to refocus Disney on sustainable growth and success,” Iger said in a statement.
Bob Iger also announced that Disney will launch a new platform combining Disney+ and Hulu in the US by the end of the year. “While we continue to offer Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ as single options, this is a logical progression of our offerings,” said Bob Iger.
With regard to the loss of 4 million subscribers, most of the defections came from the “Disney+ Hotstar” offer in India, after the loss of the streaming rights for the Indian Premier League cricket matches. Last December’s price increase in the US and Canada led to the departure of 300,000 customers.
He also sent a message to Governor DeSantis asking “does the state want us to invest more, employ more people, and pay more taxes, or not?
5 billion in savings
Disney CEO Bob Iger has announced that the company is looking to make over $5.5 billion in cost savings, which include $3 billion in non-sports related content.
“We are going to take a really hard look at the cost for everything that we make, both across television and film. Because things in a very competitive world have just simply gotten more expensive, and that’s something that is already underway here. In addition, we’re going to look at the volume of what we make. And with that in mind, we’re going to be fairly aggressive at better curation when it comes to general entertainment,
”Disney will trim the volume of new content that it produces for 2024 and 2025. It will also weed through the vast library of content on on the Disney+ and Hulu platforms, removing some of the little-watched titles that are too costly to maintain as available titles due to residuals, royalties, music licensing fees and other costs. Warner Bros. Discovery went through a similar house-cleaning last summer, which marked the first time one of Hollywood’s majors faced the harsh fact of inventory management in the streaming age.
Iger also indicated that Disney will tap the brakes on local-language content in certain areas where the return simply can’t match the investment.“We also need to strike the right balance between our local and global programming, as well as our platform and program marketing,” he said. “We must continue calibrating our investments in specific markets, looking at the total addressable market and ARPU prospects and evaluating the profitability potential… We’re doing the essential work now to position our streaming business for sustained growth and success in the future.”