Disney’s Q1 FY24 Earnings Results Webcast

[Sirwalterraleigh]

This pretty much sums it all up for Parks ..... which doesn't:

"You can pretty much conclude that they will be all over, meaning every single one of our locations will be the beneficiary of increased investment and thus, increased capacity, including on the high seas where we're currently building three more ships and a business that is obviously extremely positive to us.

We may look expansively in that direction. I'm not going to give you more of a sense of timing except that we're hard at work at getting these things basically conceived and built.

And we have got a menu of things that will basically start opening in 25 and there will be a cadence every year of additional investment and increased capacity."

I'll take SEVEN cruise ships for $20B, Bob!

Notice the “Wall Street two step”

Notice also the emphasis on the massively overpriced segment that the customers haven’t rejected yet

 

[Disney Analyst]

Announcements of what?

Things slated to open 3 years after Bob claims he’s leaving?

Put the pieces together here

I am sorry, I don't speak forum curmudgeon. I can't understand a word you say.

 

[Laketravis]

Notice the “Wall Street two step”

Notice also the emphasis on the massively overpriced segment that the customers haven’t rejected yet

Exactly. Never has there been an earnings call where the phrase "Houston, we have a problem" has been heard.......

 

[fgmnt]

That means they’d have to announce at THIS D23.

I would not expect any new construction to open in 2025. Maybe the Zootopia movie takes over tree of life that year but nothing bigger than that. You might get a 2026 opening announcement at D23 but if you pretend to care before the construction has gone vertical, i have a football you can kick.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Shocker: Disney CFO is amazed how much screen time Fortnight users spend on video games.

Where's this genius been for the last 10 years?

Behind a locked door in Burbank trying to figure out how to screw parents in Orlando?

…wait…was that rhetorical?

 

[MisterPenguin]

Michael Morris with Guggenheim. Please go ahead. >> Thank you. Good afternoon. One follow-up on the sports JV first.

That's how did you get comfortable that the availability of this service won't drive accelerated cord cutting and become an economic drag on your business and the business more broadly?

How do you expect this to impact your renewal discussions with your distribution partners?

That's my first. Then my seconds, Bob, you have seen several iterations of the video game strategy during your tenure.

Can you talk a little bit more about why this investment in epic games is -- when that may come to market? Thank you.



BOB >> Sure. Let me take the second part of the question first. Yes, you're right. We've tried our hand at video games in a number of different directions.

Actually the one that ended up being the most successful for us was the license. And I think we've licensed $9 billion franchises including the Spider-Man franchise which was the most successful video game last year.

After I came back I sat down with Josh demaroh who runs our experiences business and his executive who manages games, and one of the first things they showed me were demographic trends.

When I saw Gen Z and gen alpha and millennials screen time on video games it was stunning to me. Equal to what they spend on TV and movies.

And the conclusion I reached was we have to be there and we have to be there as soon as we possibly can in a very compelling way

We knew through our relationship with Fortnite that there was already success when some of our characters and franchises were expressed or showed up in Fortnite.

We knew Tim Sweeney at Epic because he was involved in our accelerator program in 2017.

I met with Tim and Josh and his team started a discussion about what if we create a gigantic Disney World, a la Fortnite that can live next to Fortnite and be completely interconnected with it, a world where people can play games that we create, could create their own games, could watch.

You can imagine the creation of short form videos or we may even use the platform to actually distribute some of our content. Also people that could interact with one another and ultimately some form of shopping as well and other forms of creation.

Obviously, there will be some opportunities to buy digital goods but maybe even at some point physical goods.

And I just think that given the demographic trends and given the success of Fortnite, and by the way, they're experiencing a really great era of both customer satisfaction and growth as they've returned to some of their roots.

The numbers of Fortnite have been really compelling. Just as we take our IP from our movies and our television and have them expressed in our parks, this is a great way to do it in games.

And for us, it's a way to have skin in the game with them, with the investment of $1.5 billion, strengthen a partnership because we have skin in the game, but also build a world where we're actually not creating too much risk for the company.

So as we see it, this is the best of all worlds in many respects, from a business venture perspective and certainly great for consumers who love to interact with our characters already in video game format. I'm actually actually really thrilled about it.

The first part of your first question, accelerating cord cutting. Understand that we are going to get paid in this new joint venture for our channels at a level that's commensurate with a level that we get paid for those channels in the multi-channel ecosystem.

So if a consumer moves out of that and then into this, then what we get paid for our certainly are the channels that are in it is equal to what we get paid there.

We have some other channels that are not part of this new bundle, but frankly if you look at our company and look at what we've done with FX on Hulu, with the Disney Channel on Disney Plus, with National Geographic on Disney Plus, we're really very well positioned to withstand basically the continued challenges that the multi-channel ecosystem will have.

And while there might be some de minimis economic impact on us with more cord cutting for those channels, we're back stopped in all the channels with the content that exists or that we ultimately put on Hulu and Disney Plus.

So for us it's very low risk and actually, as I talked earlier, potentially quite accretive to us in terms of signing up sports fans that have never signed up for the bundle or that might no longer want it.

 

[Laketravis]

My biggest takeaway is that there was a wealth of detail in the forward looking statements for all of the sectors EXCEPT parks, which was brief and vague.

 

[GhostHost1000]

My biggest takeaway is that there was a wealth of detail in the forward looking statements for all of the sectors EXCEPT parks, which was brief and vague.

Shocking.

 

[HauntedPirate]

My biggest takeaway is that there was a wealth of detail in the forward looking statements for all of the sectors EXCEPT parks, which was brief and vague.

That fits with Bob's understanding of themed parks - brief and vague.

 

[Laketravis]

That fits with Bob's understanding of themed parks - brief and vague.

And that they've only recently accepted the fact there is a problem with Parks. They now understand they need to address it, but other than the global "increase capacity" comment they have no plans yet how.

DCL is easy - it's solely responsible for any positive results in Experiences so build more ships. But parks? Hmmmm..........

 

[Serpico Jones]

https://x.com/petersciretta/status/1755357204520329405?s=61&t=rv05ze1KDrOvRX51VQ2elA

 

[Dranth]

My biggest takeaway is that there was a wealth of detail in the forward looking statements for all of the sectors EXCEPT parks, which was brief and vague.

I am hoping that is because they are saving it for D23. If not, time to fire up the torches and grab the pitchforks.

 

[Laketravis]

I am hoping that is because they are saving it for D23. If not, time to fire up the torches and grab the pitchforks.

I would hope so as well, but today's audience is not one you keep secrets from in order to preclude a spoiler alert for the other.

BOA's analyst was spot on with her questions. And they gave her zero answers.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I am sorry, I don't speak forum curmudgeon. I can't understand a word you say.

It would help if you had watched the fool operate over the last 8-10 years

But I wonder sometimes

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

And that they've only recently accepted the fact there is a problem with Parks. They now understand they need to address it, but other than the global "increase capacity" comment they have no plans yet how.

DCL is easy - it's solely responsible for any positive results in Experiences so build more ships. But parks? Hmmmm..........

He’ll wait out parks…trying to move on to other cows to milk

We can all be “high in the blue sky” until then

 

[Disney Analyst]

It would help if you had watched the fool operate over the last 8-10 years

But I wonder sometimes

Does it help that I have pretty bad eyes, and usually need to clean my glasses more than I do?

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Does it help that I have pretty bad eyes, and usually need to clean my glasses more than I do?

They have surgery for that…in the strip mall next to Bob’s tanning booth

 

[doctornick]

I would not expect any new construction to open in 2025. Maybe the Zootopia movie takes over tree of life that year but nothing bigger than that. You might get a 2026 opening announcement at D23 but if you pretend to care before the construction has gone vertical, i have a football you can kick.

You’re definitely correct (unless maybe they use some existing space and repurpose like putting something in WoL or the SGE space). But if they are serious about investing in the parks they could add entertainment in that timeframe like a light parade or daytime parade at DHS or new night show in AKL. Or even just more roaming characters.

 

[Laketravis]

He’ll wait out parks…trying to move on to other cows to milk

We can all be “high in the blue sky” until then

Yeah after almost an hour I couldn't help but visualize top brass in a room throwing video streaming and gaming at a screen on the wall to see what sticks...............

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I would not expect any new construction to open in 2025. Maybe the Zootopia movie takes over tree of life that year but nothing bigger than that. You might get a 2026 opening announcement at D23 but if you pretend to care before the construction has gone vertical, i have a football you can kick.

…are you calling me a blockhead?