Disney+ and Hulu Achieve Profitability, ESPN Plus Remains a Challenge: Disney’s Optimism for the Future of Streaming Business”.

Disney Plus and Hulu have achieved profitability for the first time, with combined earnings of $47 million in the past quarter. This marks a significant turnaround from the $587 million loss reported at the same time last year. However, ESPN Plus still lost $65 million, resulting in a combined streaming losses of $18 million. Despite this setback, Disney is optimistic about the future of its streaming business and expects it to become profitable in the fourth quarter of this year. CEO Bob Iger emphasized the importance of streaming during an earnings call and stated that they fully expect it to be a growth driver for the company in the future.

Disney Plus added 7.9 million subscribers in the US and Canada over the past few months, bringing the total number of subscribers to 54 million. The company recently launched a combined Disney Plus and Hulu app, with plans to integrate ESPN Plus into the app as well. A new ESPN Plus tile will be added to Disney Plus this fall, providing all subscribers with access to select live games and studio programming within the app. The growth of Disney’s ad-supported tier may have contributed to this improved performance, as they introduced a $7.99 per month option in December 2022 and encouraged subscribers to choose this tier. Additionally, Disney’s deal with cable provider Charter helped drive growth of its ad-supported tier, which ended the quarter with 22.5 million subscribers.

Moving forward, Disney has big plans for its streaming business. They plan to launch a standalone ESPN streaming service in fall 2025 and a dedicated sports streaming service later this year in collaboration with Warner Bros Discovery and Fox. These initiatives demonstrate their continued investment and commitment to growing their streaming business in the future.

In summary, Disney+ and Hulu turned a profit for the first time after reporting significant losses last year due to COVID-19 pandemic impacting their operations but despite that they are optimistic about future prospects of their streaming business