Moana 2 Skinner, Disney+ & Hulu Turn Streaming Profit

Animated Blockbuster “Moana 2” put Wind in Disney’s sale in the last three months of 2024. The answer’s strong show at the cash office office along with another profitable quarter for Disney+ and Hulu.

Disney’s entertainment flow, which consisted of Disney+ and Hulu, delivered its other equally profitable quarter with an operating income of $ 293 million on a $ 6.07 billion turnover, an increase of 9%. The flagship Disney+ Service lost a net 700,000 customers around the world (not as bad as analysts expected), while Hulu got 1.6 million (better than expected), which came after price increases, came into force in October.

In total, Disney reported a $ 24.69 billion turnover, an increase of 5% years over years and 31% growth in total operating income to $ 5.1 billion. The media giant reported a net income of $ 2.55 billion, an increase of 34% and translated to adjusted earnings per year. Share of $ 1.76, an increase of 44% from the previous year. Analysts had projected a $ 24.55 billion revenue and adjusted EPS of $ 1.43.

“Our results this quarter demonstrate Disney’s creative and financial strength as we put forward the strategic initiatives that were initiated in the last two years,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said in prepared remarks. “Overall, it turned out that this quarter was a strong start to the financial year and we remain confident in our strategy for continued growth.”

For the hollow year of the financial year 2025, Disney repeated that it expects to supply high-single digit-adjusted EPS growth together with approx. 15 billion dollars cash provided by operations. It is still expected that Entertainment Streaming Unit (ie Disney+ and Hulu) will take around $ 1 billion operating income for the year ending September 2025.

In the earnings peel, Iger told analysts, “We are actually very pleased with where we are teaching for Disney+ and Hulu. As you know, we took prices significantly quite recently and expected Churn to be significantly larger. And it turned out we delivered numbers that were better than we expected. “He said that the combination of Disney+ and Hulu, available together in a price -discounted bundle,” actually regains SUBS modestly in the quarter. ” In addition, Iger said, Disney makes improvements to its streaming platforms, including cracking down on password sharing, “that will allow us to lower churn and continue to grow subs.”

A bright spot in Disney’s entertainment department at the end of 2024 quarter: Sales of content and license revenue jumped 34% to $ 2.2 billion, and operating income came at $ 312 million (against a loss of $ 224 million a year ago). Disney said it was driven by the performance of “Moana 2”, which has so far peaked $ 1 billion globally at the ticket office. The original “Moana” 2016 has been streamed more than 1 billion hours on Disney+ to date; Last year it was the most streamed movie in the US for the second year in a row per year. Nielsen.

“The improvement in operating results was due to higher theater distribution results that reflect the strong benefit of ‘Moana 2’ in the current quarter,” Disney said in the announcement of earnings. “The current quarter also included ‘MUFASA: The Lion King’ and the previous quarter included ‘ The Marvels’ and ‘Wish.’ “

Iger proclaimed quartz’s “Excellent Boxing Office from our Studios”, which he noted produced the three best gross films from 2024- “Inside Out 2”, “Deadpool & Wolverine” and “Moana 2.” In addition to improving the profitability of its entertainment flow, Iger said: “We took an important step to promote ESPN’s digital strategy by adding an ESPN tile on Disney+.”

Results on Disney’s domestic linear TV business, which includes ABC and Kabelnet such as and Disney Channel, were flat for the quarter with $ 2.2 billion in revenue and operating income of $ 837 million. During the period, the linear domestic unit experienced an increase in programming and production costs primarily due to a higher average cost mixture of programming on ABC, reflecting the effect of 2023 Guild Strikes in the previous quarter. The international linear revenue was down -31%and operating revenue fell -39%, which Disney said was primarily due to the November closure of his joint venture with reliance industries in India to braid its star and hotstar assets with VIACOM18S TV and streaming business.

In Disney’s sports department, the ESPN turnover increased 8% to $ 4.81 billion and operating income increased 15% to $ 228 million. For fiscal 2nd quarter, the company said the sports segment operating income will be “negatively affected by about $ 100 million due to college sports” and an additional NFL end game along with about $ 50 million from leaving Venu Sports Joint Venture, like Disney Had formed with Fox Corp. and Warner Bros. Discovery.

Disney’s experiences Divisional revenue rose $ 3%to $ 9.4 billion, while $ 3.1 billion operating revenue was flat with the fiscal year Q1 2024. It reflected about $ 120 million in costs due to Hurricanes Milton and Helene and Helene and Public Posts of $ 75 Million to The launch of Disney Treasure Cruise Ship. Domestic parks and experiences Operating income decreased 5%, while international parks and experience Operating income increased 28%. In March quarter, Disney Cruise Line will incur prior opening expenses of approx. 40 million dollars.

Iger said in his comments that the experience segment “demonstrated its sustained appeal as we continue to invest strategically across the globe.”

With the formation of Star India Joint Venture, where Disney owns 37%, the company has changed how it reports certain parts of the business.

For starters, Disney is no longer reporting Disney+ Hotstar India as part of its streaming company directly to consumer. The company’s Disney+ number now contains subscribers in Southeast Asia, which was previously reported with Disney+ Hotstar. In revised numbers for the September 2024 quartal, it changed 2.6 million customers to Disney’s+’s international subscriber line.

Disney+ closed globally last year with 124.6 million subs, down 700,000 sequentially. It included a 1.5 million losses internationally to 67.8 million and an 800,000 gain in the US/Canada to 56.8 million. In March quarter, the company predicts another “modest decline” in the total Disney+ subscribers compared to fiscal 1st quarter.

VIP+ -analysis: Why ‘Moana’ was the key to Disney’s comeback -year from the start

Disney’s fiscal Q1 report includes about a month and a half with Star India’s operating results (through November 14, 2024). For the 2025 financial year, India Business will contribute an expected $ 73 million to Disney’s entertainment segment operating income (compared to $ 254 million the year before) and $ 9 million to the sports segment’s operating income (compared to a loss of $ 636 million in the previous year). In the December quarter, Disney recorded a loss of $ 143 million in connection with the Star India transaction.

Meanwhile, Disney’s complete buyout of Comcast’s one -third share in Hulu is still pending. Hulu had 53.6 million total customers at the end of the year, up from 52.0 million the previous quarter. The number of Hulu customers with a live TV package remained unchanged at 4.6 million. Last month, Disney announced a deal with Pay-TV streaming provider FUBO to combine Hulu + Live TV with FUBO’s operations in a joint venture (70% owned by Disney) to close for 12-18 months.

With the fiscal Q1 2025 report, Disney no longer reports financial information for its combined streaming of direct to consumer (Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+) as it has so far. ESPN+ Financials is consolidated in Disney’s sports segment. For this year’s exit quartal, ESPN+ 700,000 subscribed to stand at 24.9 million.