Wednesday August 05, 2020
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Disney’s new streaming portal arrives, goes on to catch customers. But the rest of the business of the US entertainment company gets under the wheel in Corona times. Almost $ 5 billion in losses are piling up.
The corona pandemic has driven the US entertainment company Walt Disney deep into the red. The bottom line was a loss of $ 4.7 billion in the three months to late June, the company said. A year ago, there was a net profit of $ 1.8 billion, and earnings from continuing operations were $ 1.4 billion. Revenue plunged 42 percent to $ 11.8 billion.
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Disney boss Bob Chapek spoke of ongoing challenges, but also of the “incredible success” of the Disney + streaming service. The video service launched last November already had 60.5 million subscribers this Monday, Chapek said. In order to attract additional customers, the new edition of the cartoon fairy tale “Mulan”, which has been repeatedly postponed in the cinema, is to be shown at Disney + in September – albeit at a proud price of just under $ 30.
Deficit streaming service
The rapid growth of the streaming business for Disney is not paying off anyway – at least not in money. The division has so far been very deficient and the boom has also been bought by bargain prices and free lure offers, for example to many US customers of the Internet provider Verizon Fios. It remains to be seen whether Disney will be able to permanently heat up the streaming market leader Netflix – which was also more in demand than ever during the corona-related lockdown.
Disney’s amusement park, vacation resort, and cruise business – usually a reliable source of profit – suffered badly from the crisis and went bad. Revenue collapsed 85 percent year over year, and operating loss was nearly $ 2 billion. Disney’s attractions have now largely reopened, but with strict corona requirements and an uncertain outlook given ongoing virus worries in the United States.
The film division also groaned under production stops and the compulsory break in cinema operations. Here, revenue fell 55 percent, but operating profit remained reasonably stable with a 16 percent drop to $ 668 million. The cable business, which is actually not exactly spoiled for success because of the problematic sports broadcaster ESPN, which has long been suffering from a loss of subscriptions, has proved to be an important pillar in the pandemic. Earnings increased 48 percent to nearly $ 3.2 billion with earnings almost stable.
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