06 Aug Disney Revenue and Profits Rise as It’s “Experimenting Like Crazy” in New Streaming Push [The Hollywood Reporter]
BY ALEX WEPRIN
August 6, 2025 | The Walt Disney Co. saw its revenues and profits rise in its latest quarter, as it prepares to launch a new streaming push built around ESPN and Hulu.
The company reported its fiscal Q3 earnings Wednesday morning, reporting revenue of $23.7 billion, up 2 percent from a year ago, and segment operating income of $4.6 billion, up 8 percent from a year ago.
The company is set to put a fresh focus on ESPN, with the sports behemoth set to launch its first fully-featured streaming service in the coming weeks, and with the company inking a blockbuster deal with the NFL, which will give the league equity in the sports media giant.
On Wednesday morning, ESPN announced an expanded content deal with the NFL, including an extension of the NFL Draft, as well as a major new deal to stream WWE premium live events like WrestleMania and SummerSlam beginning next year.
Disney’s direct-to-consumer revenue increased by 6 percent to $6.2 billion, with operating income rising to $346 million. The company added 2.6 million Disney+ and Hulu subscribers, with essentially all that growth coming from international markets. Disney expects to add about 10 million subscribers this quarter, thanks largely to its new deal with Charter Communications, which bundles the product with its TV packages. Hulu will also be fully integrated into Disney+, with the standalone Hulu set to be sunsetted next year.
DTC was a main focus of the earnings call, with CEO Bob Iger touting what the company has planned.
“You’re going to end up with a far better consumer experience when those apps are combined by combining all of the program assets of both apps, both current apps, and obviously, with an improved consumer experience comes the ability to lower churn, which is obviously something that we’re very, very focused on and committed to doing. We obviously will deliver efficiencies,” Iger said. “In addition to that, as it relates to content spend, I’d say that from a domestic perspective, you shouldn’t expect that we need to increase the spend on content significantly. Where we believe we should be investing is to grow our international businesses.