Shares of Walt Disney Co. (NYSE:DIS) were higher in pre-market trading Friday after the company reported better than expected quarterly earnings.
Disney reported that its Disney+ streaming platform, which launched in fall 2019, now has 73.7 million paid subscribers, smashing the 65.5 million analysts had anticipated. The company also saw gains at its ABC broadcast network last quarter, contributing to a smaller-than-expected loss for the July through September quarter.
Disney’s stock price rose as much as 7.3% to $145.45 U.S. a share in pre-market trading. The stock remains 6.3% below its 52-week high of $153.41 a share.
Despite the success of its streaming platform, Disney still reported a deficit of 20 cents a share, excluding some items, compared with the 73-cent loss that analysts expected on average. Revenue slumped to $14.7 billion U.S. but beat estimates as well.
Lower programming costs helped ABC through a tough stretch, boosting profit by 47%, Disney said. Including cable networks like ESPN, earnings at the media division rose 5% from a year ago to $1.86 billion U.S., also helped by higher advertising revenue. That beat Wall Street estimates for earnings of $1.26 billion U.S.
The parks and resorts division remains a difficult area for Disney as lockdown measures keep many of the company’s theme parks shuttered. The parks division registered a loss of $1.1 billion U.S., slightly smaller than expected. Disney properties in California remain closed and visitors to other resorts remain light, due to both virus-related restrictions and consumers’ unwillingness to travel.
Disney’s movie studio, which has given up releasing films in theaters this year, saw profit tumble to $419 million U.S., as the company continued to book income from home viewing.