Read up on the full press release here, with commentary from Mediavision CEO Marie Nilsson.

Last week, Disney reported earnings for its first fiscal quarter ended January 1st, 2022. The company beats Wall Street’s expectations by margin – and once again proved that streaming remains a critical focus for big media companies.

Disney Plus added 11.8 million subscribers during the quarter (a vast acceleration from 2 million addition last quarter), hitting a total of 129.8 million. Management also gave guidance for Disney Plus paid subscribers of 230-260 million globally and breakeven by the end of 2024. Hulu added 6.6 million subscribers, reaching 45.3 million subs and ESPN Plus grew by 4.3 million subscribers to a total of 21.3 million. Combined, Disney’s streaming offer recorded a total subscriber count of 196 million – which exceeded the 190 million Wall Street expected prior to the report.

Management reiterated plans to spend USD 33 billion on content this year, of which 2/3 is non-sports content. Related to this, Disney outlined a strong content pipeline for the second half of 2022 – including two Star Wars series, two Marvel series, live action movie Pinocchio and Hocus Pocus 2. The content pipeline is expected to further fuel Disney Plus subscriber growth and increase consumer stickiness. Further, Disney reiterated its increased focus on local content on international markets, the company has launched a new organization internally, focused on developing local content which is working on 340 local original productions that will be completed over the next 1.5 to 2 years.

Looking at the financial results, Disney reported revenues of USD 21.8 billion – beating the Wall Street consensus of USD 20.27 billion. Revenue growth was mainly driven by recovery in the Parks & Experience segment, despite the all the focus on Disney Plus’s subscriber growth.

Other companies that reported Q4 earnings this past week include e.g.,

– Acast; net sales growth of 40% and record quarterly net sales of SEK 336.5 million (239.9 in 2020)

– Bonnier Books; record sales in 2021 – amounting to SEK 6.9 billion

– Nuuday; ended 2021 with growth in service revenues for the second consecutive quarter – but has lost more than 400 000 TV customers in 5 years.

– Sanoma; net sales for the group of EUR 1.252 million in FY 2021 – representing a +18% growth year-over-year.

– Schibsted; consolidated operating revenues of NOK 3.936 million in Q4 2021, up 9% compared year-over-year

Read up on Mediavision’s analysis and predictions in our recently published Insight: “Will Tiktok spur Nordic AVOD?” – available here.

Could TikTok spur growth of AVOD in the Nordics? – Senal News 

Bråket visar varför Spotify behöver Rogan – SVDPoddarna – makten och pengarna – SR 

”Spotifys förflyttning berör hela branschen” – SVD

Därför kom Clubhouse-hysterin för ett år sedan – och därför dog den – SR

Hushållen tecknar fler abonnemang – rekordsiffror för S-SVOD under 2021 – Dagens Media

Swedish SVOD growth dominated by sub stacking in record revenue year – Digital TV Europe

Her er er de nye strømmevinnerne – Kampanje 

HBO enjoys major growth in the Nordics and adds over 635,000 subscribing households following Max launch – Cineuropa