STREAMING

Disney+ has negative financial results, and cuts 7,000 people

Disney company released its financial results for the last quarter and we have no positive news in some indicators. While the company is on a positive note with $23.5 billion in revenue and $1.28 billion in net income, the Disney+ streaming service isn't doing its best. In the last quarter, it managed to increase the number of subscribers in the United States and Canada by just 200,000, bringing the total number to 46.6 million. Internationally, everything that falls under Disney+, including Hotstar, brought a drop of 2.4 million people, Hulu gained 700,000 and ESPN Plus, then, 600,000 users. The problem is that the streaming business still brings losses to the company, and in the last quarter it was about 1.05 billion dollars. Disney anticipates it could turn positive by the end of fiscal 2024.

Bob Iger, who was CEO of the company until 2020 and returned to the role last November (replacing Bob Chapek), obviously intends to improve the situation. This will include, for example, laying off approximately 7,000 employees (approximately 4% of the workforce). A total of $5.5 billion is expected to be saved, and layoffs will be just part of that effort. The company's reorganization into three divisions, namely Disney Entertainment (film, television, streaming), ESPN, and Disney Parks (and merchandise), also helped. Despite its current loss, streaming is a priority. It remains to be seen whether it will help, it is already the 3rd restructuring plan in the last 5 years.

mundophone