After body blows from activist investor Nelson Peltz, Disney's Iger says streaming is 'on track' to profitability
Like the end of any Marvel movie, you’re going to need a wait a little longer for Disney’s earnings to really pay off.
The media behemoth reported Q2 earnings on Tuesday, and it’s cloooose, but not quite at its long-awaited streaming profitability milestone.
Disney’s streaming unit lost $18 million this quarter, which sounds bad until you learn that it reported a $659 million loss in the same quarter last year. Overall, revenue increased to $22.1 billion for the quarter, up ever so slightly from $21.8 billion in Q2 2023.
CEO Bob Iger said the company remains “on track to achieve profitability in our combined streaming businesses in Q4.” He continued: “Looking at our company as a whole, it’s clear that the turnaround and growth initiatives we set in motion last year have continued to yield positive results.”
In 2023, Disney inked a multiyear distribution agreement with Charter Communications, which allows the company to integrate Disney’s streaming options with Spectrum’s broadband plans. That deal took effect in September of last year and the company’s flagship streaming service, Disney+, saw a boost: More than 6 million new subscribers brought the total to 117.6 million. On anearnings call, Disney CFO Hugh Johnston noted that the company “ended Q2 with 22.5 million ad tier subscribers globally.”
But those subscribers aren’t making the company quite as much cash as before. Domestic average monthly revenue per subscriber for Disney+ dipped slightly from $8.15 to $8, “due to a higher mix of wholesale subscribers, partially offset by increases in retail pricing,” according to the earnings report.
In all, the quarter marked a solid step in the right direction for the company, which needed a win after its recent proxy battle. Just last month, Disney bested a group of activist investors, including Nelson Peltz, who unsuccessfully tried to grab two board seats.
This earnings report didn’t exactly stick a Marvel-level landing, but it does leave room for a sequel.
This report was initially published by CFO Brew.
