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The Walt Disney Company reported a 13% increase in quarterly earnings on Wednesday — to $21.8 billion.
Disney’s vast, global portfolio includes theme parks, resorts, movies, streaming and broadcast channels including Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+, and ABC.
Attendance at themes parks and resorts drove revenue this quarter. Disney’s Parks, Experiences and Products division increased its profits by 20% to $2.2 billion.
Disney’s in-person offerings performed better than streaming
Profits were not evenly distributed across Disney’s various businesses.
Disney+ lost some four million paid subscribers this quarter, dropping to 157.8 million. ESPN+ increased slightly to 25.3 million subscribers and Hulu remained steady at 48.2 million subscribers.
Bob Iger, The Walt Disney Company’s CEO, attributed the Disney+ downturn partly to a « maturation process. » The streaming service launched in 2019, and in the beginning, Iger said their goal was to, « flood the digital shelves as much as possible. » He said that lead to a lot of content that did not increase subscriptions and that the company plans to cut back on production.
Late last year, Disney+ increased the price of its ad-free service from $7.
