The growth of the streaming service owned by Walt Disney Co is reportedly starting to slow down. This is because the condition of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has begun to improve, has caused cinemas to reopen and streaming services are no longer the only entertainment during the pandemic.
As is known, streaming services like Disney's had a chance to gain blessings at the beginning of the pandemic. In fact, this line of business can be said to be the backbone of the company when several tourist parks have to be closed.
Disney CEO Robert Chapek said that although the growth of streaming services was starting to slow down, he was still optimistic about the growth from Disney+, ESPN+, Hulu, and Hotstar. According to Chapek, this optimism is supported by the film industry which has started to resume normal production and new offers provided by the company.
Citing Reuters, Walt Disney Co's overall revenue fell 13% to $15.61 billion for the second quarter ended April 3, 2021. The figure was below analyst estimates.
From operating income in the media division, Disney was still able to record growth of up to 74% yoy to US$ 2.9 billion due to higher profits on domestic and international TV networks.
Despite the increase, Disney's streaming media unit revenue decreased by US$ 290 million despite being supported by high advertising revenue from Hulu and ESPN+ revenue from Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) shows. "(Disney+) growth has significantly slowed as the initial increase in the pandemic has slowed down
Chapek said that currently his party is continuing to experiment with film distribution in order to increase subscribers. Disney will be screening the film exclusively in the summer with a 45-day period for Free Guy and Shang-Chi and The Legend of The 10 Rings. In addition, there will be a new movie coming soon on Disney+, namely Loki and the Star Wars series: The Book of Boba Fett.