In a positive quarterly result, Disney have managed to decrease their losses with its direct-to-consumer business continued to decline, falling to $659 million in the quarter, down from $1.1 billion the quarter prior, and from a peak of $1.5 billion. With digital advertising opportunities looking set to be leapt upon and increases on its its ad-free tier for Disney Plus as well as CFO Christine McCarthy’s comments regarding the removal of content from the streaming platforms, there’s certainly plenty happening at the House of Mouse right now.
In other streaming news, the total number of Disney+ subscribers declined slightly to 157.8 million, down from 161.8 million in the prior quarter. However, most of those declines were at Disney+ Hotstar, with Disney+ domestic subs only falling by 300,000, something of a surprise given that the price increase would largely have been felt for most consumers last quarter.
To that end, average revenue per user (ARPU) soared at Disney+, rising 20 percent year over year for domestic users, and 6 percent international excluding Hotstar.
Revenues in the streaming division rose to $5.5 billion (+12 percent).
Total Disney revenues in the quarter were $21.8 billion, up 10 percent from a year prior, with segment operating income of $3.3 billion, a decline of 11 percent from a year ago.
The decline in income is due almost exclusively to continued challenges in the linear TV business. Linear networks revenue fell by 7 percent year over year to $6.6 billion, with operating income in the division falling by 35 percent to $1.8 billion.
It would appear that Bob Iger’s fiscal pruning is having an effect; how much will likely be bourne out in the next few quarterly results.