The Walt Disney Company has posted revenue for the quarter ended April 1, 2023, at $21,815 million as compared to $19,249 million for the same quarter last year, an increase by 13 per cent.

The company has reported that its streaming losses have reduced by $400 million in the second quarter as compared to Q1. However, the company has witnessed a slight decline in the number of subscribers.

Disney Plus subscribers dropped by 2% to 157.8 million from 161.8 million in Q1. For Disney+Hotstar, the subscriber numbers declined by 8% to 52.9 million in Q2 as compared to 57.5 million in Q1.

Meanwhile, Disney+ Hotstar’s average monthly revenue per paid subscriber has decreased from $0.74 to $0.59 due to lower per-subscriber advertising revenue.

The company’s Direct-to-Consumer revenues for the quarter increased 12% to $5.5 billion and operating loss decreased $0.2 billion to $0.7 billion. The decrease in operating loss was due to improved results at Disney+ and ESPN+, partially offset by lower operating income at Hulu, said the company in an official statement.

The statement further reads, “The improvement at Disney+ was due to higher subscription revenue and a decrease in marketing costs, partially offset by higher programming and production costs and, to a lesser extent, increased technology costs. Higher subscription revenue was attributable to subscriber growth and increases in retail pricing, partially offset by an unfavourable foreign exchange impact. The increase in programming and production costs was due to more content provided on the service.”

During an earnings call, the company's Chief Executive Officer, Bob Iger said, “We were pleasantly surprised that the loss of subs was due to a substantial increase in pricing for the non-ad supported Disney Plus product. It was some loss, but it was relatively small and that leads us to believe that we in fact have pricing elasticity.”

On the results he said, "The strategy we detailed last quarter is working. Our new organizational structure is returning authority and accountability to our creative leaders, as well as allowing for a more efficient, coordinated and streamlined approach to our operations."

He also announced that they will soon begin offering a one-app experience domestically that incorporates Hulu content via Disney Plus.

Christine McCarthy, Senior Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer, The Walt Disney Company, informed that they will be removing certain content from their streaming platforms and currently expect to take an impairment charge of approximately 1.5 to $1.8 billion. “The charge which will not be recorded in our segment results will primarily be recognized in the third quarter as we complete our review and remove the content. And going forward, we intend to produce lower volumes of content in alignment with this strategic shift.”

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