The Manila Times

Disney profit slips, streaming TV subscribers up

SAN FRANCISCO: The Walt Disney Co. on Wednesday (Thursday in Manila) said its profit slipped in the recently ended quarter, but its television streaming service and parks were booming.

The United States entertainment giant reported a net income of $470 million, just over half of the $912-million profit it made in the same period a year earlier.

But park attendance that had fallen due to the coronavirus pandemic rebounded, and the Disney+ television streaming service gained 7.9 million subscribers to hit 137.7 million.

If subscriptions to Disney’s streaming services Hulu and ESPN were added, the overall number tops 205 million.

“Our strong results in the second quarter, including fantastic performance at our domestic parks and continued growth of our streaming services, once again proved that we are in a league of our own,” Disney Chief Executive Officer Bob Chapek said.

He told analysts that Disney was open to raising its streaming service subscription price in the future, but has no specific plans. Disney+ is pursuing a version of the service that would be supported by advertising, Chapek said.

Disney+ gained more subscribers than analysts had expected, in stark contrast to a dive in subscriber numbers reported by rival Netflix in the first quarter of this year.

A drop of just 200,000 users — less than 0.1 percent of the total Netflix customer base — caused shares in the Silicon Valley firm to plunge and prompted a shareholder to file a lawsuit accusing the streaming television titan of not making it clear that subscriber numbers were in peril.

Disney stopped licensing its coveted content to Netflix to make it exclusive to its own streaming service, and said it planned to stick with the tactic when it comes to rivals in the market.

Disney said that as its streaming television service continued to grow strongly, its resorts and parks were generally operating without any of the significant Covid-19-related restrictions on capacity that were in place last year.

The pandemic does continue to vex film and television show production, Disney said, but it has been able to release films in theaters so far this year.

“Our slate for the remainder of this year is incredibly strong,” Chapek told analysts while discussing the company’s lineup of shows for streaming and theaters.

He acknowledged challenges in getting Disney films released in China, saying the situation there was “very complicated” from political and business standpoints.

The Disney chief said he was encouraged by the fact that the just-released “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,”based on a Marvel Comics character, took in more than $500 million in its first week, even without being shown in China.

Foreign Business

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2022-05-13T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-13T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://digitaledition.manilatimes.net/article/281908776738891

The Manila Times