Awful Announcing
The media networks division, which includes ESPN and ABC, saw a boost in operating income, but a lot of that was about programming costs for the NBA in particular not being applied to Q3. Overall, the media networks saw slight revenue declines, but they seem to have less issues than other Disney divisions.
ESPN+ gained 300,000 net subscribers since the last earnings report in February, but a lot of that may be about the Disney+/Hulu/ESPN+ bundle.
The launch of Disney+ has boosted ESPN+ significantly, with a lot of people adding ESPN+ thanks to the bundle with Disney+ and Hulu.
ESPN+ now has 3.5 million paid subscribers, as per Disney CEO Bob Iger.
ESPN actually saw an operating income increase this time around, a big change from the last couple of years.
ESPN had a relatively good quarter, compared to both its past results and what happened at ABC.
While ESPN subscribers again fell, Iger has high hopes for the company's future, especially with their forthcoming OTT service.
ESPN again was part of a Disney earnings drop, boosting the focus on their plans to go over-the-top.
Bob Iger had a lot to say about ESPN, and about how the layoffs there have been covered.
Another Disney earnings call led to another miss on analysts' expectations (in revenue this time), and again led to ESPN being cited as a reason for the miss.
