LEAD STORY
Disney’s Streaming Services Deliver Good News
When Netflix released its quarterly earnings some weeks back, investors were spooked at how little it grew, which led to its stocks taking a nosedive. Was Netflix’s performance a harbinger of how the other streaming services like Disney Plus would perform?
Luckily for the folks at Disney, that fear did not materialize as the house of Mickey reported that Disney Plus added a robust 11.8 million subscribers in its first fiscal quarter of the year. That’s a massive leap from the 2 million subscribers it added in the previous quarter, pushing its total subscriber count to 129.8 million.
For the first time, they also revealed how many subscribers they have in the USA and Canada, which now stands at 42.9 million.
The news was also good for its sports streaming service ESPN Plus, which added 4.2 million subscribers, reaching 21.3 million subscribers. But, the news was not all that good for Hulu, which added just 1.3 million subscribers bringing its total subscriber to 45.3 million.
Included in Hulu’s numbers are 4.3 million Hulu + Live TV subscribers, which was up from 4 Million from the previous quarter. Disney says that it now has 196 million total streaming subscribers.
Disney attributes Disney Plus’ success to Marvel’s Eternals, Disney Plus original series Hawkeye, The Book of Boba Fett, and the streaming debut of the theatrical movie Encanto, which also became the fastest title to cross 200 million hours viewed on the platform.
The streaming service also aired musical documentaries such as the Summer of Soul and The Beatles: Get Back, which brought a different set of demographics to the platform.
The media conglomerate is very happy with Disney Plus’ performance. They are looking to strengthen its performance by adding more mature but family-friendly content such as Black-ish and Grown-ish, which air on ABC and Freeform, respectively.
These titles also run on Hulu, which presents a slight problem for Hulu as it now has a weakened content position in the streaming standings. It still has content from FX and Fox Entertainment, but it will soon be losing original content from NBCUniversal as they are looking to boost their streaming service, Peacock.
Disney is looking to keep the momentum going for the rest of the fiscal year. It will be spending $33 billion on content, with about $22 billion dedicated to entertainment and the remaining $11 billion on sports.
(AdWeek, The Streamable, The Hollywood Reporter)
RECAP
What Are Amazon’s NFL Plans?
The NFL’s offseason is here, and for the networks and platforms that air the games, they are already thinking about what they will be doing come September. Amazon’s Prime Video, which will start airing the Thursday Night Football package for the next 11 years, is cooking up something. What that something is, we just don’t know. The streamer debuted a new logo, and so far, that is all we know about their NFL intentions this fall. Could Al Michales move from NBC Sports to Amazon to be its play-by-play caller? Could Troy Aikman join him in the booth? What about the pre-game show? Will it include Tony Gonzalez and Marshawn Lynch? (Variety, Awful Announcing)
Discovery Gets Closer To Taking Over WarnerMedia
The days of AT&T being WarnerMedia’s parent company are rapidly drawing to a close due to the Department of Justice giving the go-ahead for it to merge with Discovery. The DOJ news means that the merger will likely be completed towards the end of March or early April. All that is left is for Discovery shareholders to vote on the company’s merger, which is scheduled to take place on March 11. As exciting as this news, incoming CEO David Zaslav has a lot of work to do, starting with fixing CNN. (Alex Weprin/Twitter & Los Angeles Times)
Stephanie Ruhle’s The Last Word And Expanded Morning Joe’s Get Start Dates
MSNBC has set the premiere dates for its Last Hour with Stephanie Ruhle, which will be March 2, and the fourth hour of Morning Joe will debut on April 4. Ruhle had been anchoring the 9 am ET before the promotion. Her last morning show was on February 11, and in her place will be a rotating lineup of MSNBC anchors until Morning Joe takes over. Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, and Willie Geist will all be present for the fourth hour, eating another hour of news programming. With Rachel Maddow on hiatus, Morning Joe becomes MSNBC’s signature program. (Sara Fischer/Twitter & Variety)
QUICK RECAP
ESPN’s Manningcast is expanding beyond football. (The Streamable)
Jim Angle, a former Fox News correspondent, passes on. (TVNewser)
CNN’s Anderson Cooper welcomes his second son. (AC360/Twitter)
Fox News’ Neil Cavuto has been MIA from the air since January 10. (TVNewser)
Nate Foy joins Fox News as a New York-based correspondent. (TVNewser)
Dasha Burns has been promoted to NBC News correspondent. (TVNewser)
Jemele Hill and Cari Champion join CNN Plus. (CNN Press Room)
CBS News’ Gayle King and Vlad Duthiers have Covid-19 scare. (TVNewser)
MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace tests positive for Covid-19. (TVNewser)
Nomi Ernst Leidner joins CNN as SVP of current programming, original series. (TVNewser)
London Bureau chief Andy Clarke leaves CBS News. (TVNewser)
Dr. Sanjay Gupta gets a show on CNN Plus. (CNN Press Room)
Alex Wagner returns to MSNBC as a contributor and fill-in anchor. (Variety)
Almin Karamehmedovic was promoted to Senior EP of ABC News’ World News Tonight.
CNN hires conservative Jonah Goldberg as a political contributor. (Variety)
NFL is having serious discussions about its Sunday Ticket package. (ProFootball Talk)
Black News Channel looks to keep growing. (Cablefax)
Former NFLer Peyton Manning is producing a show for Netflix. (Front Office Sports)
NBC News is aggressively promoting its NBC News Now streaming service. (Variety)
Hulu is set to lose NBC’s programming. (MediaPost)
Zucker Fallout: What happens to CNN Plus now? (The Hollywood Reporter)
Zucker Fallout: The week that shook CNN. (The Wall Street Journal)
Rugby League moves to Channel 4 in the UK. (The Guardian)
Zucker Fallout: Was all that mourning excessive? Some CNN staffers think so. (Vanity Fair)
The first Black broadcasting booth team is set to call an NHL game on February 17. (Front Office Sports)
Nickelodeon takes its green slime to the golf course. (Variety)
By the numbers: NBC Sports Super Bowl production. (NewscastStudio)
BBC News removes cryptocurrency doc at the last minute. (The Guardian)
BBC Persia seeks the UN’s help due to journalists’ harassment. (Broadcast Now)
NBC Sports is struggling with the Winter Olympics. (Sports Media Watch)
NBC Sports’ focus on US athletes does a disservice to viewers. (Variety)
NBC Sports defends its Winter Olympics coverage. (Associated Press)
Social media and a solid digital presence are making this year’s Olympics one of the most viewed video events in the U.S for NBC Sports. (Washington Post)
Fox Corp owes its second-quarter success to NFL and Tubi. (AdWeek)
CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell and Vice News win duPont-Columbia Silver Baton Awards. (TVNewser)
Chris “Mad Dog” Russo to co-host ESPN’s First Take on Wednesdays. (Awful Announcing)
Rachel Maddow’s absence is hurting MSNBC. (New York Post)
Zucker fallout: CNN could face a reset with Zucker gone. (Variety)
Zucker fallout: CNN talent has a blindspot for Zucker. (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
Could the Weather Channel’s Byron Allen buy the Denver Broncos? (Bloomberg)
ESPN’s Mina Kimes is officially a star - QR
India’s cricket league is the next big rights fight. (Wall Street Journal)
Mike Golic Jr. is leaving ESPN. (Awful Announcing)
CBS Sports announces a race and culture unit with David Cummings and Sarah Kazadi. (Michael McCarthy/Twitter)
Zucker Fallout: His most impressive production was CNN 9 am ET meeting. (Time)
Zucker Fallout: CNN Anchors grill WarnerMedia CEO. (NPR)
Zucker Fallout: CNN is bigger than Zucker. (CNN Business)
Former ATL Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms joins CNN as a political commentator. (Keisha Lance Bottoms/Twitter)
David Zurawik joins CNN as a media analyst. (Brian Stelter/Twitter)
Ryan Smith signs a multi-year extension with ESPN. (ESPN Press Room)
Former CNN Asia Director Marc Loudres dies. (CNN)
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A MarkHenry Media LLC publication - Issue #77 - 2022