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Tag: ESPN

  • Disney taps Google’s Jeremy Doig to lead its streaming as CTO

    Disney taps Google’s Jeremy Doig to lead its streaming as CTO

    Mumbai: Media conglomerate Disney has roped in Google veteran Jeremy Doig as the new chief technology officer for Disney Streaming. In this role, Doig will report directly to Disney Streaming president Michael Paull.

    Doig brings 30 years of experience in online media to lead the technology organisation and global technology strategy for The Walt Disney Company’s portfolio of direct-to-consumer streaming services. He will play a key role in driving the next phase of technical innovation and growth for Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+, and Star+.

    During his 18 year career at Google, Doig developed new standards for online media, spanning novel compression approaches for audio and video, streaming protocols for real-time and on-demand delivery, and spatial experiences.

    “Jeremy is a true visionary that has sat at the forefront of making online video streaming possible in his nearly 30-year career at the intersection of technology and media, and we are thrilled to welcome him to the Disney Streaming leadership team, ” remarked Michael Paull. “We have an exceptional team of global technologists, and Jeremy’s experience leading transformational initiatives in complex and dynamic environments will make him an incredible asset to lead this world-class group.”

    “I am thrilled to be joining The Walt Disney Company at this crucial moment in the entertainment industry, ” said Doig in a statement.

  • Disney Plus subscriber growth decelerates with 2.1 mn additions in Q4 2021

    Disney Plus subscriber growth decelerates with 2.1 mn additions in Q4 2021

    Mumbai: Disney Plus added 2.1 million subscribers in the fourth quarter 2021 much lower compared to the previous quarter where it added over 12 million subscribers. The streaming service saw subscriber growth in domestic and international markets except in India (Disney Plus Hotstar) where the number of total subscriptions decreased.

    The Walt Disney Company’s total subscriptions for its direct-to-consumer (DTC) business stood at 179 million including Disney Plus at 118.1 million, Hulu at 43.8 million and ESPN+ at 17.1 million subscribers.

    The overall subscriber growth stood at 48 per cent on a year-on-year basis whereas for Disney Plus it was 60 per cent. The Walt Disney Company chief executive officer Bob Chapek affirmed that the company would reach its target of 230-260 million subscribers by 2024 and achieve profitability for its streaming service Disney Plus by then.

    Beginning next year, Disney Plus will be doubling its slate of original content from its tentpole brands including Disney, Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars and Nat Geo. The company has 340+ local original titles in various stages of development and production and expects its total content expense to be about $ 8 to 9 billion by 2024.

    While the company is not expecting linear subscriber growth on a quarter-on-quarter basis, it does expect to see an increase in subscriptions based on two factors – its expansion into new markets and increasing cadence of content during the third and fourth quarters of the year.

    In two years, Disney Plus expanded across 60 countries in 20 languages. The streaming service expects a further expansion into 50 additional countries by the end of next year and reach a total of 160 countries by 2023. It recently launched in Japan and will launch in South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong on 12 November which is also Disney+ Day. It will continue to expand into markets like Central Eastern Europe, Middle East and South Africa in the future.

    The direct-to-consumer business revenues increased by 38 per cent to $4.6 billion. The average monthly revenue per paid subscriber for Disney+ decreased from $4.52 to $4.12 due to a higher mix of Disney+ Hotstar subscribers in the current quarter compared to the prior year quarter. Disney Plus Hotstar subscribers account for 37 per cent of Disney+ paid subscriber base.

    “As we celebrate the two-year anniversary of Disney Plus, we’re extremely pleased with the success of our streaming business, with 179 million total subscriptions across our DTC portfolio at the end of fiscal 2021 and 60 per cent subscriber growth year-over-year for Disney Plus,” said Bob Chapek. “We continue to manage our DTC business for the long-term, and are confident that our high-quality entertainment and expansion into additional markets worldwide will enable us to further grow our streaming platforms globally.”

  • Disney to phase out Hotstar US operations by 2022: Report

    Disney to phase out Hotstar US operations by 2022: Report

    Mumbai: The Walt Disney Company plans to phase out Hotstar operations in the US by late 2022, according to a report by Deadline.

    All sports-related programming on Hotstar including the Indian Premier League will be streamed on ESPN+ going forward. ESPN+ will acquire all the cricket rights owned by Hotstar to stream in the US. IPL 2021 that resumes on 19 September will be available to US audiences via ESPN+. Other live cricket events including ICC Men’s T20 World Cup will also stream on the service.

    All entertainment-related programming including Hotstar specials and Bollywood films will move to Hulu on a rolling basis. Currently, Hotstar specials like the Indian adaptation of “The Office”, “Hostages”, “Out of Love”. “City of Dreams”, “Live Telecast” and “Ok Computer” and films such as “Dil Bechara” and “The Fault in Our Stars” are available on Hulu.

    Subscribers of Hotstar US who are not subscribers of any other Disney streaming service are eligible to get the Disney bundle including Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ till the end of their Hotstar annual subscription, at no additional charge.  

    The programming migration began on 1 September.

  • Disney+ paid subs hit 103.6 mn, Disney+Hotstar accounts for around $34.5 mn subs

    Disney+ paid subs hit 103.6 mn, Disney+Hotstar accounts for around $34.5 mn subs

    KOLKATA: With a higher-than-ever growth of streaming services in the last year, The Walt Disney Co.’s (Disney) direct-to-consumer venture Disney+ has also grown quickly to surpass 100 million subscribers.

    Although its overall subscriber addition in q2 has fallen short of the Wall Street expectations, Disney+ paid subscribers have reached 103.6 million subscribers. Disney+Hotstar currently has nearly 34.5 million subscribers.

    In the same quarter a year ago, Disney+ had 33.5 million subscribers. Although it has not been able to reach the expected 109 million subscriber base, the growth is indeed fast amid an array of big-ticket rivals. Along with the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, a bunch of new entrants HBO Max, Apple TV+ is also betting big on their streaming services.

    “Results at Disney+ were comparable to the prior-year quarter as an increase in subscribers was largely offset by higher programming and production, marketing, and technology costs. The increases in subscribers and costs reflected the ongoing expansion of Disney+ including launches in additional markets,” the earnings press release mentioned.

    Disney+ touched the milestone of 100 million subscribers in early March. It indicates the last month of the quarter has seen faster growth compared to the first two months, Disney CFO Christine McCarthy said in the earnings call.

    “Between q1-q2, Disney+Hotstar was the strongest contributor to net subscriber addition and made approximately a third of total Disney+ subscriber base as of the end of q2. However, ARPU at Disney+Hotstar was down significantly compared to Q1 due to lower ad revenue as a result of the timing of the IPL cricket matches and impact of Covid in India,” McCarthy added further.

    In the quarter, Disney+ reported an ARPU of $3.99 falling 29 per cent over the same quarter of last year. The decline in ARPU has been attributed to Disney+Hotstar as overall Disney+ ARPU excluding it was $5.61. However, the average monthly revenue per paid subscribe for Disney’s other streaming services ESPN+ and Hulu grew slightly.  

    Direct-to-Consumer revenues for the quarter increased 59 per cent to $4.0 billion and operating loss decreased from $0.8 billion to $0.3 billion, the company stated. The decrease in operating loss was due to improved results at Hulu, and to a lesser extent, at ESPN+, it added. Overall, the media conglomerate has around 159 million total subscribers across its streaming services as of the end of the q2.

  • A Glance at sports TV globally during Covid2019

    A Glance at sports TV globally during Covid2019

    NEW DELHI: In a year mostly devoid of outdoors action, it came as no big surprise that when live sports resumed in the form of the IPL 2020, it set new viewership records. In a similar fashion, season seven of the ISL is also performing very well, further speaking to the love of football in India.

    But how did sports television fare in other parts of the globe? How did sports buffs in other nations get by for months when live sport was a no-no?

    The 2020 edition of the Yearly Sport Key Facts will give you a clue. Brought out by Glance, a specialist of international TV markets, the report states that months into the Coronavirus pandemic, sports fans are eagerly awaiting the return of sports on television and that the year will forever be an unprecedented season in the history of worldwide sports.

    “The broadcast sports offer during the 2019-20 season has logically declined, but audience successes have also been recorded in many countries, particularly with the resumption of competitions after lockdown,” said Glance sport director Yassine Berhoun.

    She should know: her agency provides official TV ratings for over 7,000 channels in more than 120 territories.

    As all the sports competitions from March to June were cancelled, right holders and broadcasters were left with no option but to reinvent themselves to offer attractive content to sports enthusiasts during lockdown.

    Some channels in European countries showed reruns of the greatest triumphs of their national teams. In France, the L’Equipe channel broadcast several matches from the 2018 World Cup, including France’s win in the final against Croatia, which attracted more than 600,000 viewers.  Similar strategies were adopted in Germany and Spain.

    Virtual events were also set up to make up for the absence of live sports. In northern Belgium, the broadcast of the virtual Tour of Flanders on EEN, where 13 riders were facing each other on a cycling simulation, was watched by more than 600,000 viewers with an audience share of 56 per cent.

    In the United States, the ESPN channel aired The Last Dance documentary series about the final season (1997-98) of the Chicago Bulls, Michael Jordan’s basketball team. The eagerly awaited documentary created a buzz and was watched on average by more than 6.7 million TV viewers for an average audience share of 7.8 per cent, the biggest audience in history for an ESPN documentary.

    The games have returned, but are still being played behind closed doors. One of the first football competitions to resume was the Bundesliga, the German league which was broadcast by the Sky Group in Germany. The first post-lockdown day broadcast thus achieved an audience of more than 2.5 million fans.

    In Italy, the final of the Coppa Italia between Napoli and Juventus in June achieved the best audience of the season with 10.2 million viewers and a market share of 39.3 per cent on Rai 1, which is three million more viewers than the 2019 final.

    Another highly anticipated competition, the Champions League, made its comeback in August in a new format. The final between Paris Saint Germain and Bayern Munich got the best sports audience of the season in France and Germany.

    In the 2019/20 season, six of the top ten sports audiences of the season were for Coppa Italia games, according to Glance.

    The winter sports narrowly escaped the lockdown, with only a few final events cancelled at the beginning of the health crisis. In Austria, Slovenia, Norway, Poland and Sweden, TV viewing of winter sports accounted for over 40 per cent of all sports viewed between September 2019 and August 2020. 

    LINK TO THE REPORT : https://www.glance-mediametrie.com/en/yearly-sport-key-facts-2020

  • ESPNcricinfo unveils new features with refreshed look

    ESPNcricinfo unveils new features with refreshed look

    KOLKATA: As cricket emerges back in action, ESPNcricinfo unveiled its all-new robust digital cricket experience on mobile. The new app reinforces ESPNcricinfo's core value proposition of delivering wholesome cricket news and information, along with compelling match coverage and surround content that goes beyond just scores updates for fans.

    Featuring a sharp redesign suited to enhance user experience, the app is supported by an all-new intuitive content feed, richer interface, compelling visuals, and unparalleled storytelling, serving as an all-in-one digital access point for all things cricket. In addition to the latest and most comprehensive updates around the India-Australia test series, the app will be offering the widest range of coverage across the world including IPL, PSL, BPL, BBL, CPL, ICC Cricket World Cup, County Championship, Ranji Trophy, and Sheffield Shield, to name a few.

    A key innovation to the user experience features the introduction of a live score carousel, offering sharp updates on the best of cricketing action. A highlight here is that the carousel is synchronised to the global cricketing space offering fans of the sport a panoramic view into the latest happening across global cricket through one easy swipe interface.

    Next, identifying the rise in demand for instant match updates and in-depth narratives around cricket, ESPNcricinfo has introduced a whole new live cricket score card interface in addition to an enhanced story reading experience. This feature enables fans to catch critical near-time score updates along with expertly crafted long reads, along with in-depth perspective specially curated by the in-house editorial team.

    Lastly, as a high-point to the ongoing cricketing action, the new app will also host video match highlights from the India-Australia test series, enabling fans have a one stop access point to unique match analyses and video highlights to witness and relieve defining in-play moments including best wickets, close catches, and more.

    With significant performance improvements, other new features of the app include also include access to major sections of espncricinfo.com, along with easy access to:

    ·        Fast live scores and ball-by-ball commentary

    ·        Notification updates for live cricket matches

    ·        Easy to read cricket news

    ·        Cricket videos including highlights, analyses, interviews, and press conferences

    ·        Opinion and analysis from experts such as Gautam Gambhir, Tom Moody, Sanjay Manjrekar, Ajit Agarkar, Aakash Chopra, Deep Dasgupta and more

    “With technology being central to our lives, and the world becoming more interconnected than ever, we found it imperative to deliver a distinctive product that allows fans to experience the best of global cricketing action, all in one place. With the app, sports enthusiasts everywhere will now have access to a myriad of incredible cricketing content,” ESPN India and South Asia VP-head Ramesh Kumar said.

  • MPL ropes in HockeyCurve for creative automation

    MPL ropes in HockeyCurve for creative automation

    NEW DELHI: Martech start-up HockeyCurve Technology Labs has won the account of Mobile Premier League (MPL), the fantasy gaming platform with more than 60 million users.

    During the engagement, HockeyCurve will provide end-to-end dynamic creative implementation to deliver high performance digital campaigns for all the MPL gaming verticals. This will also include programmatic ad serving, creative analytics and automating all mainline campaigns into high performance digital sub-campaigns.

    HockeyCurve co-founder and CEO Aditya Jagtap said, "We are really excited to have MPL on board. They have 50+ different games on their platform – which is a perfect recipe for building a true creative automation model for MPL. After deploying SportsPlex for broadcasters like Hotstar, Sony, ESPN, we are really kicked about expanding the product into the fantasy and gaming domain". 

    As a part of their recently launched IPL campaign, HockeyCurve deployed first of its kind real-time key player statistic based ads for MPL’s fantasy league. These ads were an instant hit with 3X increase in user engagement compared to standard banner ads and uplifted the programmatic advertising efficacy by almost two times compared to direct buy campaigns.

    "With HockeyCurve ad-server, we got a three-in-one solution that offers personalised creatives, dynamic optimisation and granular analytics, which is super scalable for our growth team. This custom setup ensures our product offerings get seamlessly extended into our advertising across our digital media campaigns. We look forward to bringing more such automation campaigns in the coming months to enthral our users,” said Arpit Awasthi, MPL’s head of digital marketing.

    Founded in 2016, HockeyCurve Technology Labs offers proprietary digital marketing products for programmatic media buying, dynamic creative optimisation (DCO) and other custom automation services to e-commerce, sports and OTT brands including Flipkart, Hotstar, ESPN, Amazon Prime Video, Sony, Zee5, Voot, Oyo, Grab and others.

  • Disney’s global streaming moves impress investors

    Disney’s global streaming moves impress investors

    MUMBAI: Financial analysts  and investors who have been backing the Disney stock are grinning ear to ear following Disney’s 10 December Investor Day announcements. Not only has the mouse house beaten the street’s expectations, it has also whipped its own guidance given to investors as far as its streaming service Disney+ is concerned.

    It announced that it had managed to add 13.1 million subscribers between October 2020 and 2 December 2020 to take Disney+’s tally up to 86.8 million subs. The steroidal performance is eye popping as that’s a target it had set for 2024 when it launched in 2019. Yes, the naysayers may say that the gold standard in streaming, Netflix, is about to touch 200 million subs globally. But remember Disney+ reached the 50 million sign up mark within five months of launch; its October 2020 figure was 73.7 million.

    Here’s more: the media & entertainment behemoth said that it has revised it 2024 outlook for the number of subs to 230-260 million from the 60-90 million it had set for that year during its last Investor Day in April 2019. Dsisney+Hotstar would account for 30-40 per cent of that; equating to 69 million-78 million and 92 million-104 million subs for the Indian streamer.

    Here’s even more: it revealed that it would be upping monthly prices by a single US dollar to $7.99 in the US and to €8.99 in Europe come March 2021.

    Sister services such as Hulu and ESPN+ have also performed notably well. The former which was predicted to hit 40-60 million subscribers by FY2024 announced  a figure of 38.6 million, while ESPN+ registered 11.5 million against its FY2024 guidance of 8-12 million. It has revised its guidance for FY2024 to 50-60 million for Hulu, with profitability expected to come to it a year earlier than guided last year. Its Hulu bundled offerings are also surpassing previous projections. Its Hulu+Live TV package which is priced at $64.99 with ads, and $70.99 with no ads has notched up four million subs.

    Ditto in terms of subscribers for ESPN+; the forecast is that it will cross 20-30 million paid subscribers by end FY2024, and be in the black by 2023.

    In all probability, Hulu will stay put as a US domestic service and Disney will extend the Star brand –  the cash cow in India which it got when it acquired 21st century Fox from the Murdochs – globally. Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Canada and Singapore will get to see Star as a tile in the Disney+ offering along with Disney, Pixar, National Geographic, Star Wars and Marvel. A brand new streaming service branded Star+ is to be launched across Latin America in June 2021 with an entertainment show and live sports programming lineup. Pricing has been put at $7.50 standalone and $9 when bundled with Disney+.

    So enthused has the mouse house’s management  been with Disney+’s performance, it has decided to double its projected spend on content from $4.5 billion for 2024 as estimated during its previous investor day in April 2019 to $8-9 billion. It expected its operating losses to peak between 2020-22; but it now predicts that the landmark will be reached in 2021. The profitability horizon has been maintained as FY 2024.

    Collectively, the Disney team has set itself a target of 300-350 million subscriptions by FY 2024. Will that take it ahead of Netflix as a whole at that time?

    In all probability, yes. With limited headroom for growth from 2022, it’s quite likely that the Reed Hastings-headed streamer will have to work hard to rope in subscribers. Even in India — one of its key growth markets — where it has different subscription slabs in order to lure different income strata in Indian society. Estimates are that Netflix in India has single digit million subscribers. Hedge fund Third Point founder Dan Loeb, who has been constantly cheerleading Disney to invest increasingly in Disney+, should have little reason to complain now that the organisation has pivoted itself around streaming.

    The market responded well to Disney’s Investor Day announcement. The stock was trading at a high of $173.96 against the previous day’s close of $154.69.

  • The Walt Disney Co restructures media & entertainment business globally

    The Walt Disney Co restructures media & entertainment business globally

    MUMBAI: The last two weeks have seen a spate of departures at Disney Star India. It began with the announcement of chairman India and APAC president Uday Shankar exiting the company by end this year. Star Sports boss Gautam Thakar followed quickly, along with another three executives at senior levels. Uday said the entrepreneurial bug had bit him, and Gautam too might go the same way. Disney Star India CEO K. Madhavan quickly found in Sanjog Gupta a replacement for Gautam, but could the departures have something to do with the reorganisation that was announced yesterday by The Walt Disney Co CEO Bob Chapek is a question that needs to be asked.

    Chapek said that Disney’s media and entertainment businesses are being restructured.

    Under the new organisation, Disney’s world-class creative engines will focus on developing and producing original content for the company’s streaming services, as well as for legacy platforms, while distribution and commercialization activities will be centralized into a single, global media and entertainment distribution organisation.

    The new media and entertainment distribution group will be responsible for all monetisation of content—both distribution and ad sales—and will oversee operations ofDisney’s streaming services. It will also have sole P&L accountability for Disney’s media and entertainment businesses.

    The creation of content will be managed in three distinct groups—studios, general entertainment, and sports—headed by current leaders Alan F. Horn and Alan Bergman, Peter Rice, and James Pitaro.

    The media and entertainment distribution group will be headed by Kareem Daniel, formerly president, consumer products, games and publishing. All five leaders will report directly to CEO Bob Chapek. Disney parks, experiences and products will continue to operate under its existing structure, led by chairman Josh D’Amaro, who continues have Chapek as his immediate boss. 

    The reshuffling has led to the direct to consumer business division no longer being managed on a combined basis. Rebecca Campbell, who chairs that as well as the international business, will report to Chapek for the latter piece, while having Daniel as her reporting superior for Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN+.

    Creative structure of content groups

    Under the new structure, Disney’s  three content groups will be responsible and accountable for producing and delivering content for theatrical, linear and streaming, with the primary focus being its  streaming services:

    Studios: Horn and Bergman will serve as chairmen, studios content, which will focus on creating branded theatrical and episodic content based on Disney’s powerhouse franchises for theatrical exhibition, Disney+ and its  other streaming services. The group will include the content engines of The Walt Disney Studios, including Disney live action and Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures.

    General Entertainment: Rice will serve as chairman, general entertainment content, which will focus on creating general entertainment episodic and original long-form content for Disney’s streaming platforms and its cable and broadcast networks. The group will include the content engines of 20th Television, ABC Signature and Touchstone Television; ABC News; Disney Channels; Freeform; FX; and National Geographic.

    Sports: Pitaro will serve as chairman, ESPN and sports content, which will focus on ESPN’s live sports programming, as well as sports news and original and non-scripted sports-related content, for the cable channels, ESPN+, and ABC.

    The Distribution group

    The media and entertainment distribution group, led by Daniel, will be responsible for the P&L management and all distribution, operations, sales, advertising, data and technology functions worldwide for Disney’s content engines, and it will also manage its streaming services and domestic television networks’ operations The group will work in close collaboration with the content creation teams on programming and marketing.

    The new structure is effective immediately, and Disney expects to transition to financial reporting under it in the first quarter of fiscal 2021.

    Its virtual investor day is scheduled for 10 December, where it will present further details of its direct-to-consumer strategies.

  • Hotstar brings some cheer to Disney numbers

    Hotstar brings some cheer to Disney numbers

    BENGALURU: Covid2019 has hit most businesses and hard! Events, including all the sporting ones, have been cancelled globally. Ad and other revenues have been impacted for media companies. The Walt Disney Company (Disney) had a steep fall in diluted earnings per share (EPS) in the quarter ended 28 March 2020 (Q2 2020, quarter under review) as compared to the corresponding year ago quarter. The company reported a 63 percent fall in diluted adjusted EPS to $0.60 in Q2 2020 versus $1.61 in the corresponding year ago quarter. Diluted EPS from continuing operations for the quarter under review decreased 93 percent to $0.26 from $3.53 in the prior-year quarter.

    Disney has four segments: Media Networks, parks, experiences and products (Parks), studio entertainment and direct-to-consumer (DTC) and international.

    Disney said in an earnings press release for Q2 2020, “The impact of Covid2019 and measures to prevent its spread are affecting our segments in a number of ways, most significantly at parks, experiences and products where we have closed our theme parks and retail stores, suspended cruise ship sailings and guided tours and experienced supply chain disruptions. In addition, we have delayed, or in some cases, shortened or cancelled theatrical releases and suspended stage play performances at studio entertainment and have seen advertising sales impacts at media networks and direct-to-consumer and International. We have experienced disruptions in the production and availability of content, including the cancellation or deferral of certain sports events and suspension of production of most film and television content. Many of these businesses have been closed consistent with government mandates or guidance. We estimate the Covid2019 impact on operating income at our parks, experiences and products segment was approximately $1 billion primarily due to revenue lost as a result of the closures. In total, we estimate that the Covid2019 impacts on our current quarter income from continuing operations before income taxes across all of our businesses was as much as $1.4 billion, inclusive of the impact at the parks, experiences and products segment. Impacts at our other segments include lower advertising revenue at media networks and direct-to-consumer and international driven by a decrease in viewership in the current quarter reflecting Covid2019’s impact on live sports events and higher bad debt expense and a loss of revenue at studio entertainment due to theater and stage play closures.”

    Total revenues for Q2 2020 increased 21 percent Y-o-Y to $18,009 million from $14,922 million in Q2 2019. Total segment operating income declined 37 percent Y-o-Y in the quarter to $2,416 million from $3,816 million. Disney’s OTT Platform Disney+ includes Indian OTT platform Hotstar. Disney+ Hotstar is a part of Disney’s direct-to consumer and international segment and Disney+ Hotstar helped alleviate a bit of the drop in numbers according to the company. Disney+ average monthly revenue per user at $5.63 was higher than ESPN’s $4.24 and about 47 percent of Hulu SVOD only at $12.06  in Q2 2020, The company estimates that it had 54.5 million Disney+ subscribers as of 4 May 2020.

    “Disney+ launched in a number of European markets during the quarter, which contributed to a total paid subscriber base of $33.5 million at the end of the quarter. And we are very pleased with the success of our rollout in Western Europe and India, including the execution of previously announced deals with some European platforms to distribute the service to all paid subscribers on certain of the widely distributed tiers and in India to convert our pre-existing subscription based Hotstar service to Disney+ Hotstar, revealed senior executive vice president and chief financial officer Christine M McCarth during an investor call.

    Parks, experiences and products

    The largest drop in absolute numbers was from Disney’s Parks segment, followed by a steep increase in operating loss from Disney’s DTC and international segment. Parks' segment operating revenue and segment income declined 10 percent and 58 percent respectively. Disney reported revenue of $5,543 million for Q2 2020 and $6,171 million for Q2 2019 from the Parks segment. Income from the segment was $639 million in Q2 2020 and $1,506 million in Q2 2019.

    “As you know, Disney, like many other companies, has experienced widespread disruption. In mid-March, we closed our domestic parks and hotels indefinitely, suspended our cruise line, halted film and TV productions and shuttered our retail stores. And while these were necessary steps to ensure the safety and well-being of our guests and employees, our businesses have been hugely impacted,” said Disney CEO Bob Chapek.

    “While it's too early to predict when we'll be able to begin resuming all of our operations, we are evaluating a number of different scenarios to ensure a cautious, sensible and deliberate approach to the eventual reopening of our parks. We will take a phased approach with limits on attendance using an advanced reservation and entry system, controlled guest density using social distancing and strict government required health and prevention procedures. These include the use of masks, temperature screenings and other contact tracing and early detection systems," revealed Chapek.

    Disney’s direct-to consumer and international

    Disney’s DTC and International segment operating revenue increased more than threefold (increased 260 percent) y-o-y in Q2 2020 to $4,123 million from $1,145 million in Q 2019. However, loss from the segment more than doubled (increased 111 percent) in Q2 2020 to $812 million from $385 million. Average monthly revenue per user (AMRPU) from Disney+ in Q2 2020 was $5.63. AMRPU for other contributors to Disney’s direct-to consumer and international segment numbers are:

    ESPN ARMPU $4.24 in Q2 2020 versus $5.13 in Q2 2019, a drop of 17 percent; Hulu SVOD only ARMPU $12.06 in Q2 2020, which was 5 percent lower than $12.73 in Q2 2020 and Hulu Live TV + SVOD ARMPU which increased 29 percent in Q2 2020 to $67.75 from $52.58 in Q2 2019.

    The company says that the increase in operating loss from its DTC and International segment was due to costs associated with the launch of Disney+ and the consolidation of Hulu. Results for the quarter under review also reflected a benefit from the inclusion of the TFCF businesses due to income at the international channels, including Star.

    “Results at our DTC businesses had an adverse impact on the year-over-year change in segment operating income of about $500 million which came in a little better than the guidance we provided last quarter. We expect our DTC and International segment to generate about $1.1 billion in operating losses for the third quarter and we expect the continued investment in our DTC services, in particular, Disney+ to drive an adverse impact on the year-over-year change in operating income of our DTC businesses of approximately $420 million, revealed McCarth to investors.

    Media Networks

    Disney’s largest segment is media networks which comprises of 2 sub-segments – cable networks and broadcasting.

    Media networks segment saw revenue increase 28 percent Y-o-Y in Q2 2020 to $7,257 million from $5,683 million in Q2 2019. Operating Income increased 7 percent Y-o-Y to $2,375 million from $2,230 million. Cable networks sub-segment revenue increased 17 percent Y-o-Y to $ 4,445 million from $3,793 million in Q2 2019. Cable networks operating income increased 1 percent to $1,799 million from $1,789 million. Disney says that the increase in cable networks operating income was due to the consolidation of TFCF businesses (primarily the FX and National Geographic networks), partially offset by a decrease at ESPN, and to a lesser extent, the Domestic Disney Channels and Freeform. The decrease at ESPN was due to higher programming and production costs and lower advertising revenue, partially offset by higher affiliate revenue

    Broadcasting revenue increased 49 percent Y-o-Y to $2,812 million from $1,890 million. Broadcasting operating income increased 53 percent in Q2 2020 to $397 million from $259 million. Disney says that the increase in operating income was due to the consolidation of TFCF, largely reflecting program sales, and to a lesser extent, an increase at its legacy operations

    Studio entertainment

    Studio entertainment segment revenue increased 18 percent in Q2 2020 to $2,539 million from $2,137 million in the corresponding year ago quarter. Studio entertainment operating income declined 8 percent in the quarter to $466 million from $506 million. Disney says the decrease in operating income was due to lower results at its legacy operations, partially offset by the consolidation of the TFCF businesses. The decrease at Disney’s legacy operations was due to higher film impairments and decreases in theatrical distribution and stage play results, partially offset by an increase from TV/SVOD distribution

    Confident about the future

    “While the Covid2019 pandemic has had an appreciable financial impact on a number of our businesses, we are confident in our ability to withstand this disruption and emerge from it in a strong position,” said Chapek. “Disney has repeatedly shown that it is exceptionally resilient, bolstered by the quality of our storytelling and the strong affinity consumers have for our brands, which is evident in the extraordinary response to Disney+ since its launch last November.”