Disney’s Streaming Wins Big With Record-Breaking Profits

Disney is having a strong year, with both streaming and parks helping the company beat Wall Street’s expectations. In its latest quarterly earnings report on Wednesday, Disney said its streaming business grew by 6% and made a $346 million profit for the three months ending June 28.

While streaming is doing well, Disney’s biggest boost came from its U.S. theme parks and experiences. The parks, along with Disney Cruise Line, brought in more visitors and higher spending, helping the company post better results than analysts predicted.

Streaming numbers are climbing too. By the end of June, Disney+ and Hulu together had 183 million subscribers, which is 2.6 million more than the last quarter. Disney+ alone gained 1.8 million subscribers, reaching 128 million. Hulu also grew, adding 800,000 subscribers for a total of 55.5 million. Back in May, Disney expected only a “modest increase” for Disney+, so these results were better than planned.

Disney thinks the next quarter will be even bigger for streaming. Between July and September, the company expects Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions to jump by over 10 million, thanks to a new deal with Charter.

The parks and experiences division made $9.1 billion in revenue, up 8% from last year. Most of that came from U.S. parks, with Disney Cruise Line also doing better than before.

Not everything went up, though. Disney’s U.S. TV networks, including ABC, saw revenue drop 4% to $2.1 billion. International networks fell even harder, down 58% because of the Star India deal.

Sports network ESPN had a small revenue bump of 1% to $4.3 billion but saw profits fall 7%. Disney blamed higher sports rights costs for the NBA and college games, plus the fact they didn’t air the NHL Stanley Cup Finals this year. But ESPN’s future is looking brighter. Disney just announced that the NFL will buy a 10% stake in ESPN, giving the sports giant control over NFL Network, NFL RedZone, and three pro football games.

In movies and content sales, revenue rose 7% to $2.3 billion. The live-action Lilo & Stitch performed well, though Thunderbolts and Elio didn’t match last year’s blockbuster Inside Out 2.

Overall, Disney made $1.61 per share on $23.7 billion in revenue, beating Wall Street’s forecast. CEO Bob Iger said, “We are pleased with our creative success and financial performance… we’re not done building, and we are excited for Disney’s future.”

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