Walt Disney reported profits for the first quarter of 2018 riding on the runaway success of Black Panther which helped the company to offset the setbacks in the its TV business.
The company reported a 9% increase in revenues at $14.5 billion and 23% increase in profits up to $2.9 billion year-on-year and beating the expectations of analysts.
While there was stress on its TV business because of competition from the digital media, Walt Disney managed to enhance profits through good performance of its film and theme park business.
There had been questions raised by the wisdom of the plan of Disney to purchase the bulk of 21st Century Fox's business. The profits made by the company however have proved otherwise.
The plans to purchase 39% stake of Fox in Sky and its film and television studios, among the other assets of Fox for a deal worth $66bn, including debt was announced by Disney last year.
Disney has plans to combat digital streaming services such as Netflix by initiating its own subscription based online streaming services, and the purchase of Fox’s assets would help Disney to add on to its already existing context and software for that plan, Disney boss Robert Iger had said at that time.
Disney is still adhering to that deal, according to Iger. However, the deal has to go through an approval process from the regulators to move forward.
There have been reports that Comcast – a large US pay-TV and internet provider, could be getting ready to place a rival bid for the assets of Fox. But there were no comments on that issues from Iger.
It had been reported last year that Comcast was interested in acquiring some of the assets of Fox but had reportedly backed out paving the way for Disney because of concerns of potential to anti-trust issues.
A formal £22bn offer for the UK broadcaster was made by Comcast last month which challenged the plans of Fox to purchase the remaining 61% stake in Sky that is already does not own. In case Fox’s deal with Sky does not go through, full control of Sky’s share stocks was planned ot be taken over by Disney.
The plans of Disney to move into the digital medium in the face of fast declining cable television revenues is not dependent on how on the forward movement of the Fox deal, Iger said.
Apart from investing Hulu, a television and movie streaming site. Disney has also started its ESPN+ sports service.
And to offer a significant access to its film and television catalogue to users, Disney also plans to begin a Disney-branded subscription service some time late next year.
The company’s media networks unit saw a drop in its operating income because of such investments. The media networks unit contributed nearly half or $6.1bn of the total revenues for the quarter for Disney. There was rise of 3% in revenues in the quarter year-on-year.
(Source:www.bbc.com)
The company reported a 9% increase in revenues at $14.5 billion and 23% increase in profits up to $2.9 billion year-on-year and beating the expectations of analysts.
While there was stress on its TV business because of competition from the digital media, Walt Disney managed to enhance profits through good performance of its film and theme park business.
There had been questions raised by the wisdom of the plan of Disney to purchase the bulk of 21st Century Fox's business. The profits made by the company however have proved otherwise.
The plans to purchase 39% stake of Fox in Sky and its film and television studios, among the other assets of Fox for a deal worth $66bn, including debt was announced by Disney last year.
Disney has plans to combat digital streaming services such as Netflix by initiating its own subscription based online streaming services, and the purchase of Fox’s assets would help Disney to add on to its already existing context and software for that plan, Disney boss Robert Iger had said at that time.
Disney is still adhering to that deal, according to Iger. However, the deal has to go through an approval process from the regulators to move forward.
There have been reports that Comcast – a large US pay-TV and internet provider, could be getting ready to place a rival bid for the assets of Fox. But there were no comments on that issues from Iger.
It had been reported last year that Comcast was interested in acquiring some of the assets of Fox but had reportedly backed out paving the way for Disney because of concerns of potential to anti-trust issues.
A formal £22bn offer for the UK broadcaster was made by Comcast last month which challenged the plans of Fox to purchase the remaining 61% stake in Sky that is already does not own. In case Fox’s deal with Sky does not go through, full control of Sky’s share stocks was planned ot be taken over by Disney.
The plans of Disney to move into the digital medium in the face of fast declining cable television revenues is not dependent on how on the forward movement of the Fox deal, Iger said.
Apart from investing Hulu, a television and movie streaming site. Disney has also started its ESPN+ sports service.
And to offer a significant access to its film and television catalogue to users, Disney also plans to begin a Disney-branded subscription service some time late next year.
The company’s media networks unit saw a drop in its operating income because of such investments. The media networks unit contributed nearly half or $6.1bn of the total revenues for the quarter for Disney. There was rise of 3% in revenues in the quarter year-on-year.
(Source:www.bbc.com)
