Will Disney Be Successful in Accomplishing These CRITICAL Goals?

Every day a new challenge hits the Walt Disney Company, but according to Disney CEO Bob Iger, four key priorities will be KEY to Disney’s success.

Iger identified these during the Q4 earnings call for fiscal year 2023 and they include a focus on streaming profitability, ESPN changes, improving output at Disney’s movie studios, and “turbocharging” growth in the Disney Experiences business (which includes the theme parks and Disney Cruise Line). We’ve seen a number of updates shared about each of these topics but now we’re going to take a deeper dive to see whether Iger is accomplishing the things he’s working on — or if his top priorities aren’t quite moving in the right direction.

On February 7th, 2024, Disney held its earnings call (and released its earnings report) for the first quarter of fiscal year 2024. This gave us some big updates on Disney’s 4 key priorities — so let’s take them one at a time now.

Goal 1: Achieving significant and sustained profitability in our streaming business

First up, we’ve got streaming (primarily Disney+ and Hulu in this category). Disney is working toward making its streaming business profitable by the end of fiscal year 2024. It has done a few things to accomplish that, like cracking down on password sharing and introducing ads. So how close is Disney to achieving profitability?

The good news is that Disney is closer to reaching profitability than it was previously with Direct-to-Consumer operating losses improving by nearly $300 million compared to the prior quarter.

Because of this, the company still expects to reach its goal for the combined streaming businesses by the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2024.

Things are changing in big ways for Disney+, particularly as Disney officially launches its integration with Hulu on the Disney+ app (to make it a one-app experience for subscribers of both services). We’ll keep an eye out for more updates as fiscal year 2024 continues.

Disney+ REMOVES Over 100 Titles From Streaming Catalog

Goal 2: Building ESPN into the preeminent digital sports platform

Another one of Iger’s goals is to build ESPN into a huge digital sports platform. ESPN is already poised for change with the introduction of ESPN Bet and the announcement of a combined streaming service with ESPN, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery. So what updates has the latest earnings report and call brought for us in this area?

During the Q1 earnings call for fiscal year 2024, CEO Bog Iger stated that ESPN’s domestic sports business continues to grow. He also emphasized that the sports-based platform continues to break records in ratings — even in a challenging linear landscape.

Not only that, but in the fall of 2025, the full suite of ESPN’s channels will be a standalone and interactive streaming service. ESPN Bet and Fantasy Sports will be integrated with shopping and special personalization features. This service will be available on Disney+ for bundle subscribers.

Sports fans — a lot more updates could be in store and we’ll be watching for them. In the meantime, click here to see what we know about the price of the new sports streaming service.

When Will You Be Able To Use Disney’s NEW Sports Streaming App?

Goal 3: Improving the output and economics of film Studios

While streaming is a big business, we can’t forget about Disney’s more traditional movie business, which has seen some successes and some failures in recent years. Iger is dedicated to improving the output of the films at Disney, but how close is he to accomplishing anything there?

It sounds like the next quarter will be relatively quiet for movies, as Disney is still dealing with the aftermath of the SAG-AFTRA/WAG strikes. But, we did learn that a Moana sequel is coming this November! And, Iger shared more details on the Zootopia, Frozen, and Toy Story sequels.

Disney has several other big films planned for the next few months/years including Inside Out 2, another Toy Story sequel, lots of Star Wars films, more superhero movies, and MORE. Will these be box office hits or will they flop, leaving Disney with only more problems? Only time will tell.

Click here to see what Disney movie release dates have been DELAYED

Goal 4: Turbocharging growth in the Experiences business

Finally, Disney is looking to “turbocharge” growth in its Experiences business, which includes Disney Cruise Line, the Disney theme parks, and more. We’ve already seen Disney discuss $1.9 BILLION expansion plans for Disneyland Resort (with the DisneylandForward project), tease potential expansions at Magic Kingdom, discuss potential re-theming for DinoLand U.S.A. in Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and talk about a commitment to spending $60 BILLION in Experiences over the next 10 years. But Disney has also reported less-than-favorable financial updates from the Florida theme parks, so what’s going on?

When it comes to the Disney Experiences department as a whole, which includes Disney Cruise Line, the theme parks, and more), Disney CEO Bob Iger is confident that performance is strong. He said, “Our strong performance this past quarter demonstrates we have turned the corner and entered a new era.”

Iger revealed that the domestic parks have doubled their business since before the pandemic, and said, “The combination of [global parks] with the domestic parks, whose business is I think more than twice what it was before the pandemic, is just an extraordinary business for us.”

However, the domestic parks and hotels did see a decrease in revenue, which Disney says was caused by decreases in attendance and occupied room nights, higher costs due to inflation, and increased guest spending, leading to lower attendance.

We learned that 70% of Disney’s $60 billion investment in the parks is “earmarked for incremental capacity-expanding investment.” And, while that may not sound like major news, that’s around $42 billion of the investment that is specifically being put aside for “capacity expanding.”

The next 10 years could be critical for Disney’s Experiences businesses, particularly if it hopes to “keep up” with the opening of Universal’s brand NEW theme park, Epic Universe, in 2025. Big changes could be on the horizon for the parks we know and love.

Click here to learn about the unfortunate Disney parks trend with NO end in sight

So that’s a look at Iger’s 4 main priorities as they stand right now. Of course, things are constantly changing with the Walt Disney Company, so we’ll continue to look for updates on these priorities as the year goes on. Do you think Iger will be able to achieve success in all 4 of these areas of focus? What about his ongoing search for the next CEO or Disney’s ongoing lawsuits with everyone from Gina Carano to Governor Ron DeSantis? There’s a lot for the Disney Company to handle right now. Tell us your thoughts on it all in the comments below. And stay tuned for more news!

Post a Comment