Disney has recently filed its latest financial report with Companies House in the United Kingdom, which covers Europe, Middle East and Africa, showcasing that it had a loss of almost £245 million dollars between October 2020 and October 2021, which was a huge drop from the previous period, a profit of £243 million.  It’s worth noting that both of these financial results will have covered periods in which the United Kingdom was in lockdown, so theatres, cinemas, shops, tours etc, were all closed, due to pandemic restrictions, and they couldn’t sell as many theme park vacations/tickets due to travel restrictions.

One of the other big reasons why Disney’s financial results for this year are down, is that Disney+ only launched in the United Kingdom in March 2020, so it’s the first full year where Disney+ has been fully operational.  It was also still sorting out some of the issues of the purchase of 20th Century Fox and Brexit.

According to the report, the loss of £244.5 million ($292.7 million) is down to “impairments of investments” as well as an increase in development costs for Disney+ and theatrical content.  The report does point out that the revenues for Disney+ “will materialize in the coming years.”

This report does show that gross revenues were up from $2.7 billion to $3.1 billion, which have been driven “by the success of Disney+” and the recovery of character merchandising revenue as pandemic restrictions were lifted.   The media and entertainment division, which includes Disney+, brought in around $2.5 billion of gross revenue, while the theme parks brought in $539 million.

Media and entertainment distribution – which includes Disney+ – accounted for approximately $2.5 billion of that gross revenue, while the Disney parks made up the remainder with $539 million.

“The success of our business depends on our ability to consistently distribute filmed entertainment, TV programming, online material, electronic games and consumer products that meet the changing preferences of our broad consumer market. We face substantial competition in each of our businesses from alternative providers of the products and services we offer and from other forms of entertainment.”

During this period, £140 million worth of intangible assets were acquired in relation to Disney+ and programme licences created by third-party producers.  These programmes have been licensed to be aired for a number of periods. It is also noted in the report that the UK company was paid almost £555 million for content for Disney+ by the US division, as part of Disney’s global policy of owning all Disney+ content in the US.

With Disney+ launching in more countries across Europe, the Middle East and Africa during the last year, plus businesses opening up following the pandemic, next year’s report will no doubt look much healthier.

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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