RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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The Walt Disney Co. reported its fiscal Q3 earnings early Wednesday, with films like Toy Story 5 , streaming, and its lucrative experiences division powering its results.
The company missed Wall Street expectations for revenue, but beat them in operating income and earnings per share, with stronger-than-expected theme park performance helping to bolster its bottom line.
The company also teed up some big changes coming to its divisions, teasing a plan to turn Disney+ into "a comprehensive membership ecosystem," with the first elements of that vision rolling out early next year.
Meanwhile, the company's lucrative consumer products segment will move from being part of Disney's experiences division and into its entertainment division: "We believe this shift will have strategic and operational benefits by bringing the monetization of our IP through consumer products closer to the studios that create that IP," the company writes.
Disney reported revenue of $25.2 billion, up 7 percent from a year ago, with segment operating income of $5.5 billion, up 21 percent from a year ago.
In entertainment, revenues were $11.3 billion with operating income of $1.68 billion. In streaming, SVOD entertainment revenue (Disney+ and Hulu minus ESPN) was $712 million, a sharp increase from a year ago, and a signal that streaming is becoming more reliably profitable.
On the earnings call, CEO Josh D'Amaro doubled down on Disney's streaming strategy, arguing that being in the space can not only be profitable, but can help the company lean into its strengths.
"There there shouldn't be much of a debate about whether streaming can be a highly attractive business with fairly recurring and predictable revenue growth, as well as the high incremental margins that we're looking for. Netflix has shown that that's possible," D'Amaro said. "Now we've been at it globally for just about six years now, and if if you were to compare where we are today at our revenue scale compared to where Netflix was at a similar revenue scale, we actually we look quite similar in terms of margins. But your question isn't really about streaming as a business, but more whether Disney can continue scaling. And listen, I believe the answer is absolutely yes."
The company did note that The Mandalorian and Grogu and the live action Moana "underperformed" at the box office, but argued that "these franchise investments contributed to value creation beyond their theatrical releases." Toy Story , for example, has generated more than $16 billion for Disney as a franchise, it said.
"Theatrical performance is is important to us, of course, and we certainly aspire to deliver consistent financial results for our films," Disney CFO Hugh Johnston said on the earnings call. "But the nature of the film industry is such that it is more of a portfolio game. The good news for us is our diversified business helps us basically cover the volatility that comes out of the the film business."
In experiences, revenues were $10 billion, up 10 percent from a year ago, with operating income of $3 billion, up 20 percent. That was despite market concerns around theme parks, especially with Universal recently reporting lower than expected results. The company said that international visitors are still down at its park, but they made up for it with domestic attendance and annual passholders.
In sports, the NBA Finals helped power ESPN, with revenues of $4.5 billion, up 4 percent, though operating income fell 17 percent to $858 million due to higher NBA rights costs. Johnston also said that the company had sold out of its advertising inventory for next year's Super Bowl already.
Disney also said that it would use the cash from the $1.2 billion sale of its A+E stake to do stock buybacks, and elaborated a bit on how it expects to use artificial intelligence:
"With AI, it isn't simply about efficiency. We use it first and foremost to enhance a creative process that will always be human-centered, artist-driven, and creator-led," the company writes. "We've cultivated the world's richest portfolio of IP and production experience across a century of filmmaking, giving us an advantage that our peers and no new entrant can quickly replicate."
"We are we're using AI strategically across not only our studios but across the the whole enterprise, and we're doing that to to gain efficiency, to to be faster, to accelerate velocity and unleash creativity inside of Disney, and we look at our studios as technology leaders in content production," D'Amaro added on the call. "And this goes back to Walt over a century ago. We've we've always pushed the cutting edge of innovation in our storytelling."
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