Disney Stock News & Earnings

[RivShore]

DIS is down over a buck pre-market. I assume it's due to the expected streaming competition from the newly combined WB & Discovery.

 

[OKW Lover]

the Disney empire is bleeding cash every nickle from WDW is being sent to prop up studios ESPN and streaming

You must have missed the news in past earnings calls that ESPN and streaming were one of the bright points in earnings while the virus was raging.

 

[RivShore]

Could a familiar name head up the new WM/Disc streaming service:

ex-tiktok ceo seen as contender for discovery warnermedia streaming

 

[ford91exploder]

You must have missed the news in past earnings calls that ESPN and streaming were one of the bright points in earnings while the virus was raging.

From last years’s SEC numbers ESPN lost 3 million subs, ESPN+ ramped to 1 million subs,

The spin machine is working overtime at Disney as their streaming system is by no means cash flow positive. Established and profitable but all the network executives have ego problems so they are making their own platforms. I’ll buy hulu even with Disney owning a good chunk. The rest of the dreck I’ll simply do without

 

[OKW Lover]

The spin machine is working overtime at Disney as their streaming system is by no means cash flow positive.

Fact or rumor?

 

[ford91exploder]

Fact or rumor?

Rumor because disney refuses to break out the numbers if streaming is the blockbuster Disney says it is why not break out the numbers and show how great it is, They dont because likely its a hail mary play based on Disney legendary incompetence wrt tech

 

[RivShore]

There's plenty of info on D+ performance. The company has never touted its current profitability and has always stated it won't be cash flow positive for a few years.

The excitement around D+'s performance currently is all about subscriber growth - all, even Disney competitors, have agreed it's fast growth has been remarkable. To be nipping at Netflix's heals in a matter of months was an unquestionable major accomplishment.

You can find plenty of streaming details in the earnings release, including it's current loss:

Direct-to-ConsumerDirect-to-Consumer revenues for the quarter increased 59% to $4.0 billion and operating loss decreased from $0.8 billion to $0.3 billion. The decrease in operating loss was due to improved results at Hulu, and to a lesser extent, at ESPN+. The increase at Hulu was due to subscription revenue growth and higher advertising revenue, partially offset by an increase in programming and production costs driven by higher subscriber-based fees for programming the live television service. Subscription revenue growth was due to an increase in subscribers and, to a lesser extent, higher rates driven by an increase in retail pricing for the Hulu Live TV+ SVOD service in December 2020. Higher advertising revenue was due to increased impressions.The improvement at ESPN+ was driven by subscriber growth and higher income from Ultimate Fighting Championship pay-per-view events.Results at Disney+ were comparable to the prior-year quarter as an increase in subscribers was largely offset by higher programming and production, marketing and technology costs. The increases in subscribers and costs reflected the ongoing expansion of Disney+ including launches in additional markets.The following table presents the number of paid subscribers(1) (in millions) for Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu as of:April 3,2021March 28,2020ChangeDisney+(2) 103.6 33.5 >100 %ESPN+13.8 7.9 75 %HuluSVOD Only37.8 28.8 31 %Live TV + SVOD3.8 3.3 15 %Total Hulu41.6 32.1 30 %The following table presents the average monthly revenue per paid subscriber(3) for the quarter ended:April 3,2021March 28,2020ChangeDisney+(2)$ 3.99 $ 5.63 (29) %ESPN+$ 4.55 $ 4.24 7 %HuluSVOD Only$ 12.08 $ 12.06 — %Live TV + SVOD$ 81.83 $ 67.75 21 %(1)A subscriber for which we recognized subscription revenue. A subscriber ceases to be a paid subscriber as of their effective cancellation date or as a result of a failed payment method. A subscription bundle is considered a paid subscriber for each service included in the bundle. Subscribers include those who receive the service through wholesale arrangements in which we receive a fee for the distribution of Disney+ to each subscriber to an existing content distribution tier. When we aggregate the total number of paid subscribers across our direct-to-consumer 5

services, whether acquired individually, through a wholesale arrangement or via the bundle, we refer to them as paid subscriptions.(2)Includes Disney+ Hotstar. Disney+ Hotstar launched on April 3, 2020 in India (as a conversion of the preexisting Hotstar service) and on September 5, 2020 in Indonesia. Disney+ Hotstar average monthly revenue per paid subscriber is significantly lower than the average monthly revenue per paid subscriber for Disney+ in other markets.(3)Revenue per paid subscriber is calculated based on the average of the monthly average paid subscribers for each month in the period. The monthly average paid subscribers is calculated as the sum of the beginning of the month and end of the month paid subscriber count, divided by two. Disney+ average monthly revenue per paid subscriber is calculated using a daily average of paid subscribers for the period. Revenue includes subscription fees, advertising (excluding revenue earned from selling advertising spots to other Company businesses) and premium and feature add-on revenue but excludes Premier Access and Pay-Per-View revenue. The average revenue per subscriber is net of discounts offered on bundled services. The bundled discount is allocated to each service based on the relative retail price of each service on a standalone basis. In general, wholesale arrangements have a lower average monthly revenue per paid subscriber than subscribers that we acquire directly or through third party platforms like Apple.The average monthly revenue per paid subscriber for Disney+ decreased from $5.63 to $3.99 due to the launch of Disney+ Hotstar.The average monthly revenue per paid subscriber for ESPN+ increased from $4.24 to $4.55 due to an increase in retail pricing.The average monthly revenue per paid subscriber for the Hulu SVOD Only service increased from $12.06 to $12.08 due to a lower mix of wholesale subscribers and an increase in per-subscriber premium add-on revenue, partially offset by a decrease in per-subscriber advertising revenue and a higher mix of subscribers to the bundled offering. The average monthly revenue per paid subscriber for the Hulu Live TV + SVOD service increased from $67.75 to $81.83 due to increases in retail pricing, per-subscriber advertising revenue and to a lesser extent, per-subscriber premium and feature add-on revenues, partially offset by a higher mix of subscribers to the bundled offering.

 

[RivShore]

More streaming sub news...

https://www.fool.com/investing/2021...hoo-host&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=article

 

[RamblingMad]

A lot of the subscribers are tied to special deals. We’ll see what it really looks like as these unwind.

I basically invested the price of a Disney vacation into the stock recently. I’m more optimistic about it than seeing fireworks.

 

[RivShore]

Not sure if this has been posted elsewhere:

The Walt Disney Company at the J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media And Communications Conference

 

[RivShore]

Some interesting stuff in this article:

disney-ceo-bob-chapek-found-this-upside-to-covid

 

[RivShore]

With Amazon's $8.5B purchase of MGM today, I think the Bob I. acquisition prices look pretty good in comparison given it's a relatively small studio without sure fire franchises.

 

[RamblingMad]

With Amazon's $8.5B purchase of MGM today, I think the Bob I. acquisition prices look pretty good in comparison given it's a relatively small studio without sure fire franchises.

AMZN has been lacking with good original content compared to Netflix. I don’t think this will help. Maybe we’ll get a James Bond tv series.

 

[BrianL]

With Amazon's $8.5B purchase of MGM today, I think the Bob I. acquisition prices look pretty good in comparison given it's a relatively small studio without sure fire franchises.

Yeah, that seems overpriced for MGM. They don't even own their pre-1986 library! If they did, that would be a different story.

 

[RivShore]

Yeah, that seems overpriced fo rMGM. They don't even own their pre-1986 library! If they did, that would be a different story.

Nor do they fully own James Bond.

 

[BrianL]

Nor do they fully own James Bond.

Do they even own the full James Bond back catalog? I know it has changed distributors over the years.

 

[RivShore]

Do they even own the full James Bond back catalog? I know it has changed distributors over the years.

Per the NYT article:

But even 007 has an asterisk. Amazon will own only 50 percent of Bond. The balance is held by Barbara Broccoli and her brother, Michael G. Wilson. The siblings also have ironclad creative control, deciding when to make a new Bond film, who should play the title role and whether television spinoffs get made. (They have blocked such efforts in the past.)

 

[RivShore]

They actually do have a couple middling franchises...

While MGM sold off much of their vintage library (including titles like The Wizard of Oz and Singin’ in the Rain) many years ago, they still control “4,000 older movies, including pre-1986 films that come from two MGM divisions, United Artists and Orion.” The franchises they do control include several very lucrative ones, like Rocky, RoboCop, and the catalog of James Bond, which have been released by United Artists since the franchise’s earliest days in the 1960s.

https://screencrush.com/amazon-buys-mgm/

 

[BrianL]

They actually do have a couple middling franchises...

While MGM sold off much of their vintage library (including titles like The Wizard of Oz and Singin’ in the Rain) many years ago, they still control “4,000 older movies, including pre-1986 films that come from two MGM divisions, United Artists and Orion.” The franchises they do control include several very lucrative ones, like Rocky, RoboCop, and the catalog of James Bond, which have been released by United Artists since the franchise’s earliest days in the 1960s.

https://screencrush.com/amazon-buys-mgm/

Yeah, I was looking at that - they do have the UA library so that's good anyway.

 

[RivShore]

Some interesting speculation on the next media mergers...

media-mergers-whos-next