LEAD STORY
The Disney Streamers Hurt Disney’s Earnings
During Disney's fiscal fourth-quarter earnings call, the media conglomerate relayed positive news about its streaming services, Disney Plus, ESPN Plus, and Hulu — they all added subscribers.
Disney Plus added 12.1 million subscribers to now stand at 164.2 million global subscribers; ESPN Plus added 1.5 million subscribers to stand at 24.3 million, and Hulu added one million for a total of 47.2 million subscribers.
These are positive numbers and should make the House of mickey happy, but that is just part of the story. Unfortunately, operational costs for the streamers have resulted in a nearly $1.5 billion loss, affecting Disney’s overall earnings for the quarter.
Revenue at the media and entertainment side of Disney dropped to $12.7 billion, a 3% year-over-year drop. Analysts had expected the division to bring in $13.9 billion.
The cost of doing business in the streaming world is not cheap, as spending on content and marketing continues to be the key line items eating up much of the company’s money.
Disney CEO Bob Chapek said that the streamers, in particular Disney Plus, will hit peak losses in the current quarter and are moving in the right direction regarding profitability.
He expects Disney Plus to be profitable in fiscal 2024, but he is not setting that in stone as they continue to monitor the effects of inflation and the concerns of a looming recession continue to echo around business corridors.
Like its other counterparts within the media industry, Disney is taking action to combat the headwinds headed its way and is now looking for additional ways to generate revenue.
It will launch an ad-tier version of Disney Plus in December and has instituted price increases for its streaming services. Disney Plus and Hulu will see increases on December 8, while ESPN Plus saw a price increase in August of this year.
In addition, there will be belt-tightening across the entire organization as Chapek looks to reign in expenditure.
He has said that business travel should be reserved for essential trips, meetings should be conducted virtually as much as possible, and a hiring freeze will be put into place, saying in a memo to employees, “Hiring for the small subset of the most critical, business-driving positions will continue, but all other roles are on hold.”
He also alluded to the fact there will be layoffs within the organization. The actual numbers are unknown, but this is not good news for Disney employees.
The promise and rosy subscriber outlooks that came with the launch of the streaming services a few years ago have been surrendered to the ugly reality that the positive numbers valued more by shareholders aren’t related to subscribers but operational profits.
(Los Angeles Times, Awful Announcing, The Streamable, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC)
RECAP
Judy Woodruff To Depart From PBS Newshour At The End Of December
She has had a storied career as a broadcast journalist, but Judy Woodruff is ready to move on and has announced that she will be stepping down as the anchor of the PBS NewsHour on December 30. Woodruff has been a PBS mainstay for the past 16 years, starting as someone who made documentaries and filed reports for its nightly news program to becoming the face of the news division. Her remarkable career has seen her also work for NBC News and CNN. Woodruff will now focus on a new project, expected to take two years, that seeks to understand how Americans view their country amid deep political divisions. (New York Times & Variety)
Netflix Looking To Invest In Live Sports
2022 looks like the year for Netflix transitions. After saying no to ads, the streamer now has an ad tier. After saying no to showing live sports, Netflix is now having second thoughts about that and is now interested in pursuing live sports. In the past few months, Netflix has been looking around, trying to acquire sporting rights. It’s not looking at the mainstream sports leagues, but is instead focusing on the low-tier sports leagues such as the World Surf League. With sports being a good subscriber driver for other streamers like Amazon Prime Video with the NFL and Peacock with the English Premier League, Netflix now sees the value of having live sports as part of its arsenal. (Deadline)
Is Robert Griffin III ESPN’s Next Big Star?
At one point during his football career, he was the starting quarterback for the formerly known Washington Redskins, now Washington Commanders. It was a plum position that brought a lot of attention to Robert Griffin III, both good and bad. But in his post-playing life, he is encountering a new kind of attention, the good kind that may see him climb the ranks at ESPN. Griffin’s dedication and preparedness in his role as an analyst work when calling college football games have caught the eyes of many within the worldwide leader of sports. He is seen as one of the most insightful and incisive football analysts working at the network. Griffin’s producer Kim Belton sees him as a potential generational talent with comparisons favorable to John Madden, Dick Vitale, or Bob Uecker. It’s all up to Griffin, who believes there is still an opportunity for him to play in the NFL. Should he decide to focus all of his efforts on his broadcast career, he will be highly sought after. (Sports Illustrated)
QUICK RECAP
Popular sportscasP.K.Fred Hickman passes away at 66. (CNN Business)
Chris Haynes has an expanded basketballP.K.e at Warner Bros. Discovery Sports. (Warner Bros. Discovery Sports/Twitter)
Former NHL player P.K. Subban joins ESPN. (Awful Announcing)
2022 Midterm Elections: Did MSNBC use tech from The Mandalorian? (Mashable)
2022 Midterm Elections: Audience dropT.V.to 25.4 million. (Axios)
2022 Midterm Elections: MSNBC beats CNN as it drops to third T.V.ongst the cable networks for the first time. (Los Angeles Times)
2022 Midterm Elections: Were the TV networks caught up in the ‘red wave’ hype? (Variety)
2022 Midterm Elections: CBS News debuts new look. (NewscastStrudio)
2022 Midterm Elections: How networks kicked off their election coverage. (NewscastStudio)
2022 Midterm Elections: How the news networks performed. (Poynter)
2022 Midterm Elections: Jake Tapper and David Muir take over election coverage at CNN and ABC News. (TVNewser)
2022 Midterm Elections: CNN and Fox News dropped login requirements. (TVNewser)
2022 Midterm Elections: CNN's Wolf Blitzer passes the torch to Jake Tapper. (New York Times)
2022 Midterm Elections: ABC News’ torch-passing between George Stephanopolous and David Muri was not so smooth. (The Daily Beast)
2022 Midterm Elections: CNN's John King on how he handles the ‘Magic Wall.” (Variety)
2022 Midterm Elections: MSNBC gives a drone tour of its election studio. (MSNBCPR/Twitter)
Tiffany Cross’ Departure: Over 40 Black Leaders send a letter to MSNBC. (HuffPost)
Tiffany Cross’ Departure: MSNBC staffers worry about the repercussions. (The Daily Beast)
Tiffany Cross’ Departure: What really happened? (Semafor)
Profile: Paramount Global's Bob Bakish on launching Paramount Plus and SkyShowtime in Europe. (Variety)
Profile: Jen Psaki on what her role will be while at MSNBC. (Vanity Fair)
Vice Media lays off 2% of its news staff. (Deadline)
ESPN's “U.Sis is SportsCenter” ads are coming back. (Awful Announcing)
BBC News looks to build a more significant presence in the US. (Press Gazette)
Conference USA signs new deal with ESPN and CBS Sports. (Sports Business Journal)
Tiger Woods to play in Turner SporT.V.’ The Match. (Sports Media Watch)
Amazon Prime Video's Thursday Night football falls to season lows. (Sports TV Ratings/Twitter)
Are streaminT.V.news channels the future of broadcast TV news? (Los Angeles Times
NBC Sports’ Sunday Night Football flexes its week 11 game. (Awful Announcing)
Peacock Premium adds livestreams of NBC affiliate stations. (Media Post)
Telemundo to offer unprecedented coverage of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. (NBCUniversal Media Village)
Thanks for reading the Coverage Notes Newsletter.
Subscribe & share. Let us know what you think here - love it or hate it; we'll learn to deal with it and make it better.
A MarkHenry Media LLC publication - Issue #106 - 2022