Bottom line: Disney has quickly become a force to be reckoned with in the streaming industry. Despite some launch day login errors caused by heavy demand and an unfortunate account hack, it's been largely onwards and upwards for the media and entertainment conglomerate. The company's latest earnings report reveal that Disney+ now has 94.9 million paying subscribers. A year ago, the service only had 26.5 million paid subscribers.
The ongoing pandemic dealt a major blow to Disney's business in the most recent quarter, especially its parks and cruise ship divisions. The saving grace was streaming, where strong performance across the portfolio has helped to dampen the overall financial impact brought about by Covid-19.
Disney has seen impressive growth across its entire streaming portfolio, not just Disney+.
ESPN+ plus finished the quarter with 12.1 million subscribers, an 83 percent increase compared to the 6.6 million subscribers it had at the same point a year ago. Hulu, meanwhile, grew its subscriber base by 30 percent to 39.4 million users.
Despite the streaming wins, it was still a rough quarter for Disney due to the continued pandemic and its impact on the company's theme park and cruise ship business.
For the quarter, Disney generated earnings of $16.25 billion, down 22 percent year-over-year from $20.88 billion. Diluted earnings per share were just $0.02 versus $1.17 a year earlier. Still, it's better than Wall Street was expecting. Analysts with Refinitiv were anticipating revenue of $15.9 billion and a loss of $0.41 per share.
Image credit: Koshiro K, Jonathan Weiss