Like the ending of any Marvel movie, you’ll have to wait a little longer for Disney’s revenue to really pay off.
The media giant reported second-quarter results on Tuesday, and they’re good, but not quite at the long-awaited streaming profitability milestone.
Disney’s streaming unit lost $18 million this quarter, which sounds bad until you hear that it reported a $659 million loss in the same quarter last year. Overall, revenue for the quarter rose to $22.1 billion, up slightly from $21.8 billion in Q2 2023.
CEO Bob Iger said the company “remains on track to achieve profitability in our combined streaming businesses in the fourth quarter.” He continued: “When we look at our business as a whole, it is clear that the turnaround and growth initiatives we initiated last year continue to deliver positive results.”
In 2023, Disney entered into a multi-year distribution deal with Charter Communications, allowing the company to integrate Disney’s streaming options with Spectrum’s broadband plans. That deal went into effect last September and the company’s flagship streaming service, Disney+, saw a boost, with more than 6 million new subscribers bringing the total to 117.6 million. During an earnings call, Disney CFO Hugh Johnston noted that the company “ended the second quarter with 22.5 million ad-level subscribers worldwide.”
But those subscribers aren’t making the company as much money as they used to. Domestic average monthly revenue per subscriber for Disney+ fell slightly from $8.15 to $8, “due to a higher wholesale subscriber mix, partially offset by retail price increases,” according to the earnings report.
Overall, the quarter marked a solid step in the right direction for the company, which needed a win after the recent proxy battle. Just last month, Disney defeated a group of activist investors, including Nelson Peltz, who unsuccessfully tried to win two board seats.
This earnings report didn’t exactly ensure a Marvel-level landing, but it does leave room for a sequel.
This report was initially published by CFO Brew.