(DailyAnswer.org) – The Walt Disney Company’s shares have plummeted by over 9% as the company’s CEO Bob Iger stated that Disney is still set for a difficult journey forward following recent financial struggles.
Disney warned that subscriptions to its Disney+ streaming service may stagnate in the near future. When speaking to analysts, Iger reiterated his faith in the streaming platform as the future of the company and stressed that Disney had always known the path to financial success will not be a linear one. The CEO said a soft third quarter was expected partly because of the “seasonality” of the company’s coverage of Indian sports. Iger stated that the company was prioritizing working towards the streaming service’s growth to drive the company forward in the future.
In late 2023, as the company faced its 100th anniversary, a number of obstacles faced Disney; an ongoing actors strike, lack of clarity about a CEO succession plan, shrinking attendance at Florida’s Disney World Resort and a two-year legal battle with Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis all impacted the company financially. A settlement was finally reached between DeSantis and Disney in March regarding how Walt Disney World should be governed.
Disney’s revenue from linear television is also declining, but Iger suggested the company may sell some of these assets, which include National Geographic, FX, ABC and the Disney Channel. Though in the last quarter the company gained a 2% increase in international signups to its streaming service, subscriptions in the US declined. The company increased the price of its ad-free subscription in October.
Concerns have been raised about the quality of Disney’s content as multiple films flop at the box office, such as “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”, both of which performed poorly in 2023. The company even admitted in 2023 that its “woke” approach to content had impacted it financially. According to Will Hild, executive director for Consumers’ Research, the company acknowledged that it had become detached from the viewing habits of its audience. Hild stated that the company was aware of how the audience’s exhaustion with woke politics, woke themes and woke imagery had begun to consistently hinder its performance at the box office.
The company delayed the release of its Snow White remake amid fears it could flop as the Little Mermaid remake did in 2023. Both films received criticism online for race-swapping the lead characters of the originals. Along with Netflix, Disney reportedly released more LGBTQ content in 2022 than any other Hollywood studio.
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