Walt Disney Co. rose more than 6% in extended trading after management of the world’s largest entertainment company said capital spending and outlays for movies and TV shows are coming in lower than projected.
Sales grew 3.8% to $22.3 billion in the quarter ended July 1, missing analysts’ projections slightly. But subscribers to the Disney+ streaming service tumbled 7.4% to 146.1 million from the previous three months, missing the 154.8 million consensus analysts had expected. Disney reported a 23% decline in profit, to $1.89 billion, in traditional TV — underscoring the troubles confronting that division.
Disney is in the throes of major upheaval: Iger signaled in a July interview with CNBC that TV networks including ABC, Freeform and FX, which contributed about half of Disney’s operating income before the pandemic, “may not be core” to the company any longer.