Disney reported its first streaming profit on Wednesday, and CEO Bob Iger expects further growth in the future with pricing increases and more content offers.
During the results call Wednesday, Iger attributed the streaming success to the “success of our creativity,” highlighting the company’s 183 Emmy nominations and demand for shows like Shogun, The Bear, and Abbott Elementary. This demand, combined with new streaming initiatives such as additional sports programming on Hulu and the impending release of hit movies like Inside Out 2, makes Iger optimistic about the service’s future and consumers’ willingness to bear price rises.
“What we’re basically seeing is we’re seeing growth in consumption and the popularity of our offerings, which gives us the pricing leverage that we believe we have,” Iger stated in reference to the results call. “So every time we’ve taken a price increase, we’ve had only modest churn from that, nothing that we would consider significant.”
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The pricing increases, which will raise the monthly cost of its Disney+ ad-supported and ad-free tiers by $2 each, among other adjustments, are slated to take effect on October 17. The increases also make The Disney Bundle, which will include the ad levels of Disney+ and Hulu for $10.99 per month, just slightly more than paying for one standalone service, a more appealing option for consumers. The move comes after Disney agreed to acquire full ownership of Hulu from Comcast.
Iger also noted Disney’s upcoming film slate, which includes Moana 2, Mufasa: The Lion King, Captain America: Brave New World, Snow White, and other titles, as potential drivers for the streaming service following their theatrical release.
“The goal is to grow engagement on the platform, and what I mean by that is obviously offering a wider variety of programming, which is why we’re adding news, why we’re adding the ESPN tile to it, why we’re bundling aggressively to give consumers the ability to buy across all of our basically creative engines,” Iger explained during the conference call. “And we are quite optimistic about the future of this industry. We’re not talking much more than that, but you can expect it to increase significantly in fiscal 2025.
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Hugh Johnston, Disney CFO, said on the results call that bundling had helped reduce churn. He also mentioned that the company has witnessed a solid advertising market, with DTC advertising up 20%.
Furthermore, the business launched its password sharing crackdown in June, with a larger deployment planned for September, which is projected to increase revenue. Iger stated that the corporation has received “no backlash at all” for the password sharing notices that have already been sent out. He stated that the corporation is aiming to improve its content recommendation engines and streaming-related marketing strategies.
“We were losing a billion dollars a quarter, not all that long ago, and now we’re making money, and our expectation is we’re going to continue on that journey to making more money to get to and then ultimately, well surpass the double digit margins that we’ve talked about,” Mr. Johnston said.
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