Disney has continued to gain traction in streaming and is positioning itself further as Netflix's main competitor, which allowed it to relegate a net loss of $ 710 million in the fourth quarter of its fiscal year 2020 to the background on Thursday. .
The other activities of the Californian group - amusement parks, production of content for television and cinema - remain affected by the restrictive measures linked to the pandemic.
The impact of Covid-19 on the group's accounts totaled $ 2.4 billion in the last quarter of fiscal year 2020 ended October 3.
The cost will be around 1 billion for 2021 but everything will depend on the schedule of resumption of operations, warned in a statement Thursday Disney, whose Californian amusement park is still closed.
In the meantime, Disney +, Netflix's last competitor and Disney priority, is building up and will be deployed in Latin America in the coming days.
The platform now claims 73.7 million subscribers, against 57.5 million at the end of the third quarter.
By comparison, Netflix has 195 million subscribers.
"
The real positive point is the activity of direct service to the consumer, which is the key to the future of our company
", underlines Bob Chapek, the boss of Disney.
Disney + has “
exceeded (the) most optimistic forecasts.
We have deployed this service in more than 20 countries around the world and next Tuesday we will launch it in Latin America, notably in Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Argentina.
It will then be in other markets next year
, ”said the manager.
The announcements boosted the stock by more than 5% in electronic trading following the close of the session on Wall Street.
In advance
"
One year after its launch, Disney + has reached the targets set by Disney, four years ahead of schedule,
" commented Eric Haggstrom, analyst at eMarketer.
Between the general public's disenchantment with dark rooms, possible places of contamination, and the success of streaming with consumers confined to their homes, Disney recently carried out a vast reorganization of its media and entertainment divisions in order to focus on its Disney +, Hulu, ESPN + and the future international Star service.
Under the new structure, all the distribution and marketing activities of content created both for internet streaming and for cinema or television will be grouped into a single unit.
This new division will include the management of Disney + operations.
In the fourth quarter, the company's total revenue fell 23% to $ 14.7 billion, affected by amusement parks (-61%) and movie studio (-52%) , Disney having had to postpone the release of several films because of the pandemic.
It is nevertheless better than the 14.20 billion dollars anticipated by the markets.
The loss of the American giant in the last three months is its second consecutive quarter in the red.
Disney lost $ 4.7 billion in the third quarter of its fiscal 2020, its first deficit since 2001.
The company attributes these unusual underperformances to the difficulties of amusement parks.
Unsurprisingly, Bob Chapek again attacked the Californian authorities on Thursday, which still prevent the reopening of Disneyland in this state despite operations of pressure and charm from the owner of Mickey.
"
Our health and safety protocols are based on science and have obtained the support of unions representing 99% of our employees
", insists Mr. Chapek, calling on the authorities to re-examine "
the situation in an objective way, in particular what we have accomplished in our (other) parks (having reopened) around the world
”.