{"id":567896,"date":"2025-11-13T15:44:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T15:44:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/567896\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T15:44:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T15:44:21","slug":"disney-tops-streaming-expectations-in-final-subscriber-report-quarterly-results-otherwise-mixed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/567896\/","title":{"rendered":"Disney Tops Streaming Expectations In Final Subscriber Report; Quarterly Results Otherwise Mixed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDisney<\/a>\u2018s strong results in streaming<\/a>, including a better-than-expected subscriber jump, helped offset a struggling film studio and sluggish ad sales in the company\u2019s fiscal fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the company\u2019s last quarter of reporting streaming subscribers, the company said the overall tally for Disney+<\/a> and Hulu<\/a> hit 196 million. Disney+, which launched six years ago, nearly to the day, is now at 131.6 million subscribers, split nearly evenly between the U.S. and international.<\/p>\n

\n\tDespite the traction in streaming, Disney\u2019s total revenue missed Wall Street forecasts. That was one reason why the company\u2019s stock fell 8% (a big move for the large-cap Dow component) in early trading. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe gain of 12.4 million streaming subscribers from last quarter came in more than 2 million better than Wall Street\u2019s target. Operating income in the direct-to-consumer unit rose $99 million to $352 million, with revenue climbing 8%.<\/p>\n

\n\tAbout half of the subscriber gain in the quarter came via wholesale deals, notably the landmark distribution agreement with Charter Communications, CFO Hugh Johnston said in an interview with CNBC.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe launch of ESPN\u2019s newly bulked up streaming service occurred during the quarter, on August 21, but ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro and other Disney execs have maintained that they do not plan to regularly disclose subscriber numbers.<\/p>\n

\n\tAdjusted earnings<\/a> per share drifted down to $1.11 from $1.14 in the year-ago period, but they still beat Wall Street analysts\u2019 expectations by six cents. Revenue, though, was flat with a year ago at $22.5 billion and undershot forecasts.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe lack of political ad spending in the 2025 quarter compared with 2024 resulted in a $40 million shortfall, the company said. Studio results in the July-to-September period were hurt by comparisons with the same period a year ago, when Inside Out 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine were making theater turnstiles spin. Content Sales\/Licensing and Other revenue fell $368 million as a result. The studio\u2019s bumpy run of late ended last weekend with Predator: Badlands hitting a franchise high in its opening weekend. Marquee titles Zootopia 2 and Avatar: Fire and Ash are arriving for Thanksgiving and Christmas, respectively.<\/p>\n

\n\tSports revenue ticked up 2% to just shy of $4 billion, but operating income fell 2%, in part due to expenses related to the debut of the ESPN streaming service. The return of college football and the NFL during the quarter helped ESPN domestic ad revenue increase 8%.<\/p>\n

\n\tExperiences, the corporate division including the company\u2019s ever-lucrative theme parks, saw a modest year-over-year revenue gain of 6% to $8.77 billion. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe company plans to add two cruise ships to its fleet in the coming months, the Disney Adventure and the Disney Destiny, and warned investors it will incur $160 million in pre-opening expenses and $120 million in dry dock expenses.<\/p>\n

\n\tDisney\u2019s carriage battle with YouTube TV, which has resulted in a two-week blackout, one of the longest in Disney history, is not reflected in the quarterly report because it began after the September 27 end of the quarter. But CEO Bob Iger and CFO Hugh Johnston could be asked about it during a conference call with analysts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Disney\u2018s strong results in streaming, including a better-than-expected subscriber jump, helped offset a struggling film studio and sluggish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[51,823,180440,1830,30598,4097,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-567896","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-disney","10":"tag-disney-earnings","11":"tag-earnings","12":"tag-hulu","13":"tag-streaming","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115543163954144312","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}