Disney closes the year with a loss: it hadn't happened for 40 years

Park closures and the suspension of many activities are weighing. The positive note, however, comes from the Disney + streaming service, which in a year reached 73.7 million subscribers.

Disneyland - Ahaheim (Photo: Travis Gergen via Unsplash) The long-lasting Covid-19 emergency continues to weigh on the speakers of the Disney group. For the first time in the last forty years, the company closed a balance sheet in the red after the second consecutive quarter with a loss. From the data presented, the company reported a loss of over $ 710 million in the last three months, while revenues fell to $ 14.7 billion from $ 19.1 billion in the same period last year.

The closure of theme parks and resorts certainly weighed, causing losses of over $ 6.9 billion over the entire year, down by 61% over the previous year. And to these were also added the blocking of cruises and the production of films and TV shows, which caused roughly another half billion dollars in lost revenue. Overall, Disney reported a net loss of over $ 2.8 billion.

In September, the company also announced the layoff of 28,000 employees employed in various entertainment and production businesses in addition to those employed in Disneyland parks and themed cruises.

Save streaming

The situation is however counterbalanced by the encouraging results coming from the video streaming sector, in which Disney has entered for about a year . The Disney + service, which debuted in the United States and Canada in November 2019, while in Italy it arrived during the first lockdown.

Today Disney + has reached 73.7 million paid subscribers worldwide, an increase of over 13 million from the 60 million subscriptions recorded in August. Other streaming services such as Espn + and Hulu also reported excellent results, with an increase in users and over 36.6 million paying consumers in the case of the Hulu platform, of which Disney is the majority shareholder.

And the The entire direct-to-consumer services sector saw turnover grow by 41% compared to the same period last year, reaching 4.8 billion in revenues. It is the result of the strategy implemented by the new CEO Bob Chapek, who took over from the resigning Bob Iger last February and who, by focusing above all on streaming content, has brought the Disney + platform in just twelve months to an excellent position in a value market estimated at around $ 51.6 billion in 2020, according to Statista and currently dominated by Netflix.