Leaked Data Reveals Disney+ Generated $2.4 Billion In One Quarter
Earlier this year, a hacking group known as Nullbulge revealed that it had hacked Disney’s Internal Slack, which includes over one terabyte of data which includes “almost 10,000 channels, every message and file possible.”
Some of the data from that leak has now been revealed by Wall Street Journal, which included some financial and strategy information such as revenue details about Disney+ and ESPN+; in addition to some theme park pricing offers and even some login credentials for some of Disney’s cloud infrastructure.
According to some internal spreadsheets, Disney+ generated more than $2.4 billion in revenue in the second quarter of this year. This means that Disney+ accounts for about 43% of the direct-to-consumer business.
This data also highlights the importance of Hulu, which is only available in the United States. That is likely to be the majority of the division’s additional revenue, though ESPN+ will also be a factor.
Disney’s quarterly financial results never break down how much each streaming service is making. So this data, while potentially not 100% accurate, does show how much the platform was making earlier this year, and that’s only going to grow.
Disney is currently in the final stages of completing its purchase of Comcast’s 33% stake in Hulu, following Comcast’s request that Disney buy them out, as per the agreement made in 2019. Both parties have had Hulu’s value estimated by major banks, but with both valuations being too far apart, a third party has been brought in to finalise the deal.
Way back in 2019, Disney laid out its plans to make its streaming business profitable by 2024 and is expected to make this happen. In the past year, Disney has been much more aggressive in making sure its streaming division is more profitable, by reducing the amount of original content it creates, removing less popular content and laying off thousands of cast members. It has also increased the price and launched an ad-supported tier for Disney+.
While this data from the Slack hack can’t be 100% trusted, it does highlight that Hulu is still the biggest revenue generator. While it has about the same number of subscribers as in the United States, over 90% of them are on the ad-supported plan, and Disney makes more money from advertising. It’s also why we’ve seen Disney drastically shift its focus to bringing Hulu content and subscribers into Disney+, since it’s likely once it completes its purchase of Comcast’s stake in Hulu, it will bring the two platforms together, to be similar to how Disney+ operates outside the US, to allow it to reduce costs further.
Disney issued a statement to WSJ regarding this leak:
“We decline to comment on unverified information The Wall Street Journal has purportedly obtained as a result of a bad actor’s illegal activity,”
Roger’s Take: Disney is laser focused on making its streaming services profitable, and while we can’t trust this data is 100% accurate, it does also show how Disney+ is still far below Netflix, which pulled in over $9 billion that same quarter. But it also highlights why Disney is moving forward with its plans, as more and more people switch to streaming services, resulting in Disney no longer being able to rely on cable as its income.
What do you think about the information revealed in this leak? Let me know on social media!
Roger Palmer
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