Disney reported a sharp increase in losses from its streaming business in its fiscal second quarter to March. The operating loss swelled to USD 812 million from USD 385 million a year ago at the Direct-to-Consumer & International division, while revenues jumped from USD 1.1 billion to USD 4.1 billion. This follows the acquisition of 100 percent of Hulu in March 2019 and costs for the launch of Disney+.
The figures show Hulu's customer base up 27 percent year-on-year to 32.1 million. That includes 28.8 million SVoD subscribers and 3.3 million for the live TV service, up from respectively 27.2 million and 3.2 million in the previous quarter.
Disney+ finished the quarter with 33.5 million subscribers. Disney said on a conference call about the results that the number reached 54.5 million as 04 May, just short of six months since the initial launch.
Disney also announced that it's foregoing an interim dividend, due to the adverse impact of the Covid-19 crisis on its business. This will save the group around USD 1.6 billion in cash. In the first half of its fiscal year, free cash flow was down 39 percent year-on-year to USD 2.2 billion, and net earnings from continuing operations dropped 73 percent to USD 1.44 per share.
