Disney Earnings Put Focus on Bob Iger’s Deal-Making To-Do List
Disney ’s era of budget-priced streaming video packages and galloping subscriber growth has come to an end. For the second time in about a year, Disney unveiled a round of major price increases to its streaming products, raising the cost of the ad-free versions of Disney+ and Hulu by more than 20% each. The company also vowed to crack down on password-sharing , an effort that streaming rival Netflix started in earnest earlier this year.
The moves, along with deep cuts announced early this year, are geared toward achieving profitability for Disney’s streaming segment by September 2024. “Our streaming business is still actually very young," Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger told investors during a conference call to discuss the company’s latest results. “Because we’re new at all of this," he said, Disney still has to figure out how to properly balance pricing, cost savings and money spent on marketing.
The price increases and pledge to address account sharing come as the company earlier Wednesday said its streaming business lost far less money in the latest quarter than it did in previous periods , but reported that its flagship Disney+ streaming service lost domestic subscribers for the second quarter in a row. The company also raised prices on its Hulu Live television packages and announced the launch of a new bundle known as the Duo Premium, which pairs Disney+ and Hulu without ads for $19.99 a month. Previously, the company had offered both services as stand-alone products, or bundled with ESPN+ for the same $19.99 price.
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