• by Wayne Friedman , November 8, 2023

Walt Disney's direct-to-consumer (D2C) business had positive results with strong subscriber additions and lower projected losses -- boosting the company’s stock in after- market trading -- about 4% higher.

In its fourth-quarter period, Disney+ added 7 million subscribers -- more than projected, and 500,000 in the U.S. It now has 112.6 million global Disney+ subscribers (7% higher) and 46.5 million U.S. subscribers (up 1%).

With regard to its overall D2C businesses -- including Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu -- it dramatically narrowed its D2C operating losses to $420 million in the period, down from $1.4 billion in the year-ago period.

At this pace, Disney now expects to see D2C profitability in the fourth-quarter 2024 period. 

Direct-to-consumer (D2C) revenues climbed 12% to $5.05 billion.

Disney's linear TV networks pulled back 9% in revenue to $2.6 billion, due to declining linear TV advertising revenue resulting from lower viewer impressions at its networks and a decrease in political advertising at its TV stations.

In addition, there was less affiliate revenue due to a decline in subscribers at its networks.

“Linear TV advertising is better than it had been,” said Bob Iger, chief executive officer of Walt Disney, speaking on CNBC on Wednesday. “We have seen some improvement.”

Linear TV networks posted operating profits of $805 million flat versus the same period a year ago.

At its closely watched ESPN business, revenue grew 1% t0 $3.8 billion. ESPN witnessed 16% gain in operating income to $953 million.

Overall company-wide revenue grew 5% to $21.2 billion, with operating income rising 86% to $1.0 billion.