Disney shares closed 6 percent lower Friday at $47.06, despite the...
Disney shares closed 6 percent lower Friday at $47.06, despite the company reporting stronger results for Q4 ended Sept. 29. Revenue rose 3 percent from the year-ago quarter to $10.8 billion, while profit grew to $1.2 billion from $1.1 billion.…
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Disney’s interactive division had the weakest result of all segments, with revenue falling 14 percent to $191 million, while the operating loss narrowed to $76 million from $94 million. It was the only division with an operating loss. Disney’s planned purchase of Lucasfilm should help the company on various fronts, including the games business, which tends to be “boys-driven,” and in mobile, CEO Robert Iger said. It should help expand Disney’s e-commerce business, which he said has “grown very, very nicely since the relaunch” of Disney.com. “The greater penetration of DVRs and the greater usage of DVRs” is having an impact on reported TV ratings, said Iger. Disney feels “very, very good about opportunities” in subscription VOD and on digital platforms, he said. “As we've seen, and other large media companies have seen, the opportunities to monetize owned IP are only growing, not just because of new technology, but globally.” Disney will “continue to see growth in both revenue and growth in bottom line, in income, from output deals” to third-party and new platform owners, he said, calling it “an exciting time for intellectual property owners.” Disney continues to do business with Netflix and other similar service providers and “we'll probably continue to be in business with those and new entrants in the marketplace,” he said. Disney is “engaged in discussions on a number of directions about that,” he said without elaborating. Within Disney’s Media Networks division, broadcasting operating income was about flat at $915 million “as higher program sales, lower programming and production costs and higher affiliate and royalty revenue were largely offset by lower advertising revenues and higher equity losses at Hulu,” Disney said in a news release. Hulu did not have a significant effect on the broadcasting results despite the “increased programming costs” incurred from it, Chief Financial Officer Jay Rasulo said. “If you back Hulu out of the broadcasting numbers, in fact, broadcasting would've been slightly positive.”