Sawt Falasteen - Disney profit slips but streaming TV subscribers jump

The entertainment giant reported net income of $470 million, just over half of the $912 million profit it made in the same period a year earlier.

Park attendance that had fallen due to the pandemic, however, rebounded and the Disney+ television streaming service gained 7.9 million subscribers to top 205 million total, the company said.

"Our strong results in the second quarter, including fantastic performance at our domestic parks and continued growth of our streaming services once again proved that we are in a league of our own," said Walt Disney Company chief executive Bob Chapek.

Disney+ gained more subscribers than analysts had expected, in stark contrast to a dive in subscriber numbers reported by rival Netflix in the first quarter of this year.

A drop of just 200,000 users -- less than 0.1 percent of the total Netflix customer base -- caused shares in the Silicon Valley firm to plunge and prompted a shareholder to file a lawsuit accusing the streaming television titan of not making it clear that subscriber numbers were in peril.

Competition in the streaming television market has intensified, particularly from Disney+, with the cost of producing coveted original shows climbing as well.

Disney said that as its streaming television service continues to grow strongly, its resorts and parks are generally operating without any of the significant Covid-19 related restrictions on capacity that were in place last year.

The pandemic does continue to vex film and television show production, Disney said, but it has been able to release films in theaters so far this year.

"Our slate for the remainder of this year is incredibly strong," Chapek told analysts while discussing the company's line-up of shows for streaming and theaters.

Disney shares were up more than three percent in after-market trade that followed release of the earnings figures.

K.AbuTaha--SF-PST