A statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse stands in a garden in front of Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom park in Walt Disney World on May 31, 2024, in Orlando, Florida.
Gary Hershorn | Corbis News | Getty Images
Disney will report quarterly results on Thursday, and Wall Street will once again focus on updates to the company’s media business, particularly as it relates to traditional television and streaming.
Here’s what Wall Street expects Disney to report for its fiscal fourth quarter, according to LSEG:
- Earnings per share: $1.05 expected
- Income: $22.75 billion expected
This will be the last time the company releases subscriber counts and average revenue per unit, or ARPU, for its streaming services, which include Disney+ and Hulu.
Disney will follow in the footsteps of the streaming giant Netflixwhich earlier this year stopped informing investors of its subscriber count.
In August, Disney reported having nearly 128 million Disney+ subscribers and Hulu 55.5 million. The same month, the company also launched the direct-to-consumer ESPN app, which includes all content from its television networks.
The company also said it will no longer report subscriber and ARPU statistics for ESPN+ starting in the fiscal fourth quarter.
The company also increased the prices of its streaming offerings once again in October.
The final subscriber report will also shed light on whether Disney’s streaming subscriptions were affected by its decision in September to temporarily suspend the late-night show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
Disney had pulled the show from the air following Kimmel’s comments about Charlie Kirk’s murder and President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement. Following the decision to suspend the program – which lasted less than a week – media reported that Disney had experienced an exodus of subscribers.
Although streaming remains the main area of focus for investors given its steady growth, eyes will also be on Disney’s traditional television networks, which include the ABC broadcast network and cable TV channels like ESPN and FX.
Media peers like Discovery of Warner Bros. recently released quarterly results that demonstrate a continued decline for TV networks, particularly in advertising revenue, as more consumers abandon the TV package in favor of streaming options. Disney reported declines in operating profit and advertising revenue for linear networks in previous quarters.