The Walt Disney Company posted a strong June quarter, with a 14.4 million gain in Disney+ streaming subscribers and a strong rebound in theme park revenue — topping Wall Street expectations on most metrics.
Disney+ had 152.1 million paid subscribers as of July 2, the end of the group’s third quarter of fiscal 2022. 10 million sequential gain was in line with analyst estimates of 14.4 million pickups for the flagship streamer.
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Disney reported $21.5 billion on the top line in the quarter ended July 2, a 26% year-over-year increase and a 70% increase in revenue from its Parks, Experiences and Products division. Net income rose 53% to $1.4 billion, which translated to adjusted earnings per share of $1.09. Wall Street analysts, on average, expected Disney to earn $20.62 billion per share, according to Refinitiv data.
A decline in Netflix’s category in the first half of 2022 led to strong gains for Disney+, while Warner Bros. Discovery said domestic HBO Max and Discovery+ subscribers declined in Q2.
Separately on Wednesday, Disney announced price increases for Disney+ and Hulu in the fourth quarter of calendar 2022, as well as the U.S. announced a December 8 launch date for the ad-supported Disney+ tier in
Disney shares were up more than 6% in after-hours trading.
“We had an outstanding quarter, with our world-class creative and business teams excelling at our domestic theme parks, strong growth in live-sports viewership and significant customer growth in our streaming services,” Disney CEO Bob Chapek said in prepared remarks. .
The company’s board recently renewed the CEO’s contract until July 2025.
Disney now counts 221.1 million total subscriptions worldwide across its streaming offerings, which include Disney+, Disney+ Hotstar, Hulu and ESPN+ — just ahead of Netflix, which ended Q2 with 220.7 million.
Most of Disney+’s gains in the most recent quarter came outside the US and Canada, where the service picked up just 100,000 to reach 44.5 million. International Disney+ subscribers grew by 6 million to 49.2 million in the quarter, while Disney+ Hotstar — available in India and Southeast Asia — picked up 8.3 million to 58.4 million. Core Disney+ generated average monthly revenue per customer of $6.29 (up 3% year-over-year) compared to $1.20 (up 54%) for Disney+ Hotstar.
On the earnings call, CFO Christine McCarthy said the company expects net adds for the Disney+ core (excluding Disney+ Hotstar) to grow at a “modest pace” in the September quarter compared to the fiscal quarter, “particularly in the domestic market.”
The U.S.-only Hulu service gained 600,000 paid subscribers, bringing its total to 46.2 million; That includes 4.0 million live-TV subscribers — flat from the prior quarter. ESPN+ gained 500,000 subscribers, respectively, to 22.8 million.
Disney’s direct-to-consumer revenue was $5.06 billion for the quarter, up 19% from Wall Street expectations of $5.2 billion, per FactSet. Operating loss for the DTC segment was $1.06 billion, versus $293 million in the year-ago period.
Disney’s linear TV network revenue rose 3% to $7.2 billion and operating income rose 13% to $2.5 billion.