Disney trims streaming losses

Disney reported a drop in adjusted quarterly profits, even as it trimmed losses on its streaming business and reported stronger profits from its theme parks.

The media and entertainment conglomerate earned $1.9 billion, or 93 cents a share, excluding special items, matching the forecast of analysts surveyed by Refinitiv, but down 9% from the $2.1 billion it earned on that basis a year earlier.

Including special items, net income nearly doubled to $2.1 billion from $1.1 billion. Revenue rose 13% to $21.8 billion.

The company's closely watched streaming business, Disney+, trimmed losses by $228 million, or 13%, from a year earlier to $659 million. The improvement from the previous quarter was even greater, as it trimmed losses from $1.1 billion.

Disney did it with a 2% drop in subscribers for Disney+ and a 1% drop overall, when including ESPN+ and Hulu in subscription totals. It was able to trim losses with fewer subscribers through higher subscription revenue and a decrease in marketing costs, partially offset by higher programming and production costs.

The company's ongoing efforts to trim losses and begin to make profits on its streaming business could disappoint some of the people who have enjoyed Disney+, however.

First of all, it expects to remove some of its existing content on the streaming services, and will be taking a $1.5 billion to $1.8 billion charge in the current quarter related to the removal of that content. And CEO Bob Iger said the company will produce less content for the services going forward.