The Walt Disney Company’s year-end / Q4 earnings call is set today for 4:30 PM. Ahead of the call, financial statements were released, and we have some information leading into the investor call coming up shortly.
Disney CEO Bob Iger has indicated that the company did cut the $5.5 billion as they said they would early in the year. However, the CEO claims they are “on track to achieve roughly $7.5 billion in cost reductions,” adding another $2 billion in cuts to the original number.
On the streaming side of the business, Disney+ added 7 million Disney+ subscribers (not counting Star.) But Disney’s streaming lost $387 million across its streaming segments for entertainment and sports.
Disney+ Ad Supported tier grew 2 million subscribers, with 50% of new subscribers choosing the ad-supported plan.
Hulu didn’t fare as well, but did gain 300,000 live-bundle subscribers driving the total subscriber count up to 48.5 million (it was 48.3 million.)
Disney+ Hotstar lost about 7% of its subscriber count.
Disney still expects to hit profitability with Disney+ by Q4 2024.
They also don’t expect the password-sharing crackdowns to be fully impactful until 2025.
Bob Iger offered these comments to shareholders:
“Our results this quarter reflect the significant progress we’ve made over the past year.
While we still have work to do, these efforts have allowed us to move beyond this period of fixing and begin building our businesses again. We have a solid foundation of creative excellence and innovation built over the past century, which has only been reinforced by the important restructuring and cost efficiency work we’ve done this year, and we’re on track to achieve roughly $7.5 billion in cost reductions. Combined with our portfolio of valuable businesses, brands and assets – and the way we manage them together – Disney has a strong hand that differentiates us from others in our industry.
As we look forward, there are four key building opportunities that will be central to our success: achieving significant and sustained profitability in our streaming business, building ESPN into the preeminent digital sports platform, improving the output and economics of our film studios, and turbocharging growth in our parks and experiences business. We have already made considerable advancements in these four areas and will continue to move forward with a sense of purpose and urgency, and I’m bullish about the opportunities we have before us to create lasting growth and increase shareholder value.”
The investor call can be heard here at 4:30 PM EST.
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