Disney+ and Hulu Profitable as ESPN+ Slide Continues

As part of its latest quarterly earnings report, The Walt Disney Company announced that Disney+ and Hulu were both profitable for the first time.

Disney earned an operating income of $3.8 billion on revenues of $22 billion, roughly flat with the same quarter one year ago. Buried in there, its direct-to-consumer (DTC) streaming business lost $18 million on revenues of $6.2 billion, a major improvement over the $659 million loss one year ago.

The company credited Disney+ and Hulu for the gains: Both services were profitable for the first time, and both grew their respective subscriber bases.

Disney ended the quarter with over 167 million subscribers across Disney+ and Hulu, with 117.6 million Disney+ Core subscribers (up 6 percent), 45.8 million Hulu subscribers (up 2 percent), and 4.5 million Hulu + Live TV subscribers (down 2 percent).

ESPN+ performed worse, with its $65 million loss offsetting the combined profits of $47 million at Disney+ and Hulu. ESPN+’s subscriber base also fell 2 percent, to 24.8 million.

But Disney has a solution: More ESPN. The company plans to integrate more ESPN sports content into its combined Disney+ and Hulu offerings to pump up subscriber numbers and revenues. This will include select live games and studio programming ahead of a late 2025 launch of a standalone ESPN streaming service.