Disney CEO Bob Iger says ESPN‘s bulked-up streaming service will launch in the fall of 2025, or possibly even as soon as late-August of that year. The stand-alone offering will follow this fall’s planned launch of a high-profile joint streaming venture pooling the sports properties of Disney-ESPN, Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox Corp. Like that mini-bundle, the new streaming version of ESPN will offer access to multiple linear feeds of ESPN networks. Unlike the JV’s app, though, it will surround video progr ...

Disney’s profit blew away forecasts although revenue fell a bit short in a key, and solid, earnings report that the company hopes will set the stage for more robust growth. Revenue was flat at $23.5 billion for Disney’s fiscal first quarter ended in December. Diluted EPS (excluding some items) was $1.22, up 23% from the year before. Entertainment DTC operating losses improved by nearly $300 million versus the prior quarter as it heads toward profitability by the end of fiscal 2024. “Just one year ago, we o ...

Disney will unveil fiscal first-quarter financials after market close Wednesday – but this isn’t any earnings report. It’s one that comes with two separate activist shareholders lobbying aggressively to push new directors onto the company’s board because the stock has lagged and, they say, Disney hasn’t made any big moves to create value. One potential game changer came late yesterday with Disney, Warner Bros. and Fox announcing the launch of a new sports streaming joint venture pooling the sports rights o ...

Disney, Fox Sports and Warner Bros. Discovery are teaming up for a sports streaming venture set to launch by the end of the year. Details are still coming into focus about the service, which will pool resources among three of the biggest owners of sports rights. One aspect yet to be determined is how the new venture will affect linear broadcasts. NBCUniversal has recently experimented, with notable success, with streaming-only carriage of high-profile games. The Wall Street Journal had the first report of ...

and Instagram parent company Meta Platforms set a stock market record Friday, adding $200 billion in market value in a single trading day on the heels of a knockout earnings report. The 20% rise in the tech giant’s stock price, to an all-time high of $474.99, followed the company’s stellar fourth-quarter earnings report on Thursday afternoon. Revenue for the period ending December 31 shot up 25% year-over-year to $40.1 billion, driven by growth in ad impressions across the company’s social media portfolio, ...

 Apple beat on the top and bottom line today but investors nudged the shares lower as sales fell and in China and the company didn’t deliver the blowout the Street seemed to want. Revenue of $119.6 billion, up 2%, beat expectation was up for the first time after four quarters of declining sales, and above expectations —  Apple had told investors to expect revenue to be about flat with a year ago. Earnings per share of $2.18 were higher than $2.11 anticipated and up from $1.88 the year before. “Today Apple ...

Amazon delivered better-than-expected results in the fourth quarter of 2023, with revenue up 14% year-over-year in a strong holiday season. Revenue of $170 billion in the quarter ending December 31 exceeded Wall Street analysts’ consensus forecast for $166 billion. Earnings of a dollar per share represented the strongest profit figures in more than two years, soaring above the year-ago quarter’s 3 cents a share and easily beating estimates of 80 cents. The quarter included the bulk of Prime Video‘s exclus ...

The lines at Disney World may be long, but the Mouse House isn’t standing around to let Ron DeSantis savor his win yesterday in the company’s First Amendment lawsuit against the failed presidential candidate. Less than 24 hours after a federal judge agreed with the Florida Governor and deep-sixed Disney’s nearly year long legal action, the Bob Iger-run entertainment giant and Sunshine State mega-employer gave official notice they plan to challenge Wednesday’s dismissal. “Notice is given that Plaintiff Wa ...

Nelson Peltz wants Disney shareholders to elect him and former Disney executive Jay Rasulo to the company’s board, and today he unveiled the two current directors he’d like unseated to make room. Trian, Peltz’s investment firm, asked shareholds to withhold votes for Maria Elena Lagomasino and Michael Froman and vote for himself and Rasulo instead as he ramps up his campaign against Disney for what he calls poor management that’s resulted in a lagging stock price. The board showdown will come at Disney’s an ...

Google parent Alphabet reported decent numbers for the fourth quarter of 2023, including a 15.5% hike in YouTube  advertising to $9.2 billion (from $7.8 billion), solid but disappointing the market a bit with shares down 4%. Most numbers met but didn’t exceed forecasts at a time of very high expectations for tech stocks. Google Search & other advertising was $48 billion from $42.6 billion. Google Network saw ad revenue of $8.3 billion vs $8.5 billion. So total Google advertising including YouTube of $65.5 ...