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Former President Donald Trump participated in a live town hall on CNN, his first appearance on the network in years.
The event was moderated by “CNN This Morning” anchor Kaitlan Collins and featured a live audience who often clapped at his false claims and laughed at Trump’s mockery of writer E. Jean Carroll.
The town hall came one day after a jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming Carroll.

Former US President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event in Manchester, New Hampshire, US, on Thursday, April 27, 2023. 
Adam Glanzman | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday again pushed false claims that his 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden was “rigged” as he clashed with a CNN host in a live town hall.
Trump also lashed out repeatedly at the woman who in a civil lawsuit accused him of rape, one day after a jury in that case found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation.

The 70-minute event in New Hampshire marked Trump’s first appearance on the network since the 2016 presidential campaign, according to CNN. It was moderated by “CNN This Morning” anchor Kaitlan Collins, who attempted to fact-check Trump in real time. It featured a live audience of Republicans and undeclared voters.
Much of the crowd was highly favorable to Trump, frequently applauding and laughing in support of his remarks.
Trump, who for years has falsely claimed he beat Biden in 2020, told Collins that “unless you’re a very stupid person you see what happened” in that contest. When asked if he would publicly acknowledge his loss, Trump referred to claims from a group that promotes election conspiracy theories.
Trump also defended his supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when asked if he regretted his actions on that day. Trump said the people who came to hear him deliver a speech near the Capitol — some of whom would then storm the Capitol and disrupt the transfer of power from Trump to Biden — were “there with love in their heart.”
“It was a beautiful day,” said Trump, who went on to suggest former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi bore blame for the riot.

He also said he would likely pardon “many of them” if he won back the White House in 2024.
When an undeclared voter asked him about the country’s debt and the ongoing clash in Congress over the debt ceiling, Trump said the U.S. should go into default if Democrats don’t agree to major spending cuts.
“Well you might as well do it now because you’ll do it later because we have to save this country,” Trump said when on his views on a nationwide default.
Collins pressed Trump repeatedly on abortion, likely to be a major issue in the 2024 cycle. Trump, who has been more opaque than some of his GOP competitors, repeatedly declined to give a firm answer on whether he would sign a federal abortion ban if he was elected again.
“I would negotiate so people are happy,” he said at one point, while touting his conservative Supreme Court picks who were critical to last year’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade. When the host continued to push for clarity, he said, “I’m looking at a solution that’s going to work.”
The conversation also lingered on Russia’s war in Ukraine, with Trump dodging questions about whether he wanted Ukraine to win but saying he thought Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s invasion was “a tremendous mistake.”
The town hall at times sounded more like a debate, with Collins frequently interjecting to rebut Trump’s claims and the ex-president responding aggressively.
“You’re a nasty person,” he told Collins at one point, as she grilled him on why he took classified documents to his Mar-a-Lago home after leaving the presidency.
Since souring on CNN years earlier, Trump has railed against the network, its ratings, its leadership and many of its on-air personalities.
But following a change in leadership at CNN and amid a reported ratings slump, the network has apparently decided to give Trump another chance.
“He’s the Republican frontrunner. He has to be on,” Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, whose company owns CNN, said of Trump on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” last week. The town hall was also seen as a test of CNN CEO Chris Licht’s rule against airing disinformation.
The decision raised concerns from Trump’s critics, who argue giving the ex-president a live platform to spread misinformation neglects the lessons the media learned during his presidency. Some of them have also accused Licht of trying to court a more centrist audience as part of his overhaul of the network.

E. Jean Carroll exits the Manhattan Federal Court following the verdict in the civil rape accusation case against former U.S. President Donald Trump, in New York City, May 9, 2023.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters

The timing has only heightened the controversy. The town hall comes one day after a New York jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation in a civil case brought by writer E. Jean Carroll.
The jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll $5 million in compensatory and punitive damages.
It’s far from clear whether the outcome of that trial, which Trump decried in a stream of social media posts Tuesday evening and which his lawyer has vowed to appeal, will affect his bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
During the town hall, Trump repeatedly mocked Carroll to cheers and laughter from the crowd.
Trump, who lost his 2020 reelection bid to Biden, still appears to be the de facto head of the Republican Party. Even his would-be primary rivals had mostly muted reactions to the jury’s damning verdict.
Trump appeared to chide CNN ahead of the town hall, suggesting in a social media post the network booked him “because they are rightfully desperate to get these fantastic (TRUMP!) ratings once again.”
“Could be the beginning of a New & Vibrant CNN, with no more Fake News, or it could turn into a disaster for all, including me. Let’s see what happens?” Trump wrote. More

The media and entertainment industry is currently focused on raising prices and cutting costs.
Disney lost 4 million Disney+ subscribers in the quarter, most of which came from India.
At some point, the industry will need a new growth narrative. The most obvious candidate is gaming.

Robyn Beck | Afp | Getty Images

I’m calling it. The Streaming Wars are over. 2019-2023. RIP.
The race between the biggest media and entertainment companies to add streaming subscribers, knowing consumers will only pay for a limited number of them, is finished. Sure, the participants are still running. They’re just not trying to win anymore.

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Disney announced its flagship streaming service, Disney+, lost 4 million subscribers during the first three months of the year, dropping the company’s total streaming subscribers to 157.8 million from 161.8 million. Disney lost 4.6 million customers for its streaming service in India, Disney+ Hotstar. In the U.S. and Canada, Disney+ lost 600,000 subscribers.
It’s become clear the biggest media and entertainment companies are operating in a world where significant streaming subscriber growth simply isn’t there anymore – and they’re content not to chase it hard. Netflix added 1.75 million subscribers in its first quarter, pushing its global total to 232.5 million. Warner Bros. Discovery added 1.6 million to land at 97.6 million.
The current big media narrative is all about getting streaming to profitability. Warner Bros. Discovery announced last week its U.S. direct-to-consumer business turned a profit of $50 million in the quarter and will remain profitable this year. Netflix’s streaming business turned profitable during the pandemic. Disney on Wednesday announced streaming losses narrowed to $659 million from $887 million.
Read more: Iger praises rival Universal’s ‘Super Mario Bros. Movie’
Netflix has curbed its content spending growth, and Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney have both announced thousands of job eliminations and billions of dollars in content spending cuts in recent months. Disney will “produce lower volumes of content” moving forward, Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy said during Wednesday’s earnings conference call, though Chief Executive Bob Iger noted he didn’t think it would have an impact on global subscriber growth.

There’s still some growth among the smaller players. NBCUniversal’s Peacock gained 2 million subscribers last quarter, giving it 22 million subscribers. Paramount Global added 4.1 million subscribers in the quarter, putting it at 60 million subscribers.
But the key question isn’t looking at the growth numbers as much as it’s about the investor reaction to the growth numbers. Paramount Global fell 28% in a day last week after the company announced it was cutting its dividend from 25 cents a share to 5 cents a share to save cash.
Disney+ Hotstar subscribers brought in a paltry 59 cents per month of revenue last quarter, down from 74 cents last quarter. It appears Disney is OK with losing these low-paying customers. Disney gave up its Indian Premier League cricket streaming rights last year. Those rights were acquired for $2.6 billion by Viacom18, of which Paramount Global owns a minority stake.
Disney also announced it’s raising the price of its ad-free Disney+ service later this year. Disney’s average revenue per user for U.S. and Canadian subscribers rose 20% in the most recent quarter after yet another price increase was announced last year. Big price hikes typically aren’t the strategy executives use if the priority is adding subscribers.

What’s next?

Raising prices and cutting costs isn’t a great growth strategy. Streaming was a growth strategy. Maybe it will come back a bit with cheaper advertising tiers and Netflix’s impending password sharing crackdown.
But it’s highly unlikely growth will ever return to the levels seen during the pandemic and the early years of mass streaming.
That probably means the media and entertainment indudstry will need a new growth story soon.
The most obvious candidate is gaming. Netflix has started a fledgling video game service. Comcast considered buying EA last year, as first reported by Puck. Microsoft’s deal for Activision is now in jeopardy after UK regulators blocked the transaction. If that acquisition fails, Activision could immediately be a target for legacy media companies as they look for a more exciting story to tell investors.
While Disney shut down its metaverse division as part of its recent cost cuts, marrying its intellectual property with gaming seems like an obvious match. One can easily envision the growth potential of Disney buying something like Epic Games, which owns Fortnite, and building its version of an interactive universe through gaming.
More consolidation will happen – eventually – among legacy media companies. But one major gaming acquisition could start a run in the industry.
Perhaps The Gaming Wars is the next chapter.
Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of Peacock and CNBC. More

Eli Lilly CEO Dave Ricks promised not to raise the prices of the company’s insulin products.
He was the only executive to do so before a Senate Health Committee hearing that also included the CEOs of Novo Nordisk and Sanofi.
All three companies have faced years of political pressure to make the lifesaving drug more affordable for people with diabetes. 

An Eli Lilly & Co. logo is seen on a box of insulin medication in this arranged photograph at a pharmacy in Princeton, Illinois.
Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Eli Lilly CEO Dave Ricks on Wednesday promised not to raise prices on the company’s existing insulin products again — the only executive to do so before a Senate Health Committee hearing on making the life-saving diabetes drug more affordable.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, the committee’s chair, asked Ricks and the CEOs of Novo Nordisk and Sanofi to commit to “never increase the price of any insulin drug again.” The three companies control over 90% of the global insulin market. 

Ricks was the only executive who outright agreed to Sanders’ demand – at least for Eli Lilly’s existing insulin products.  
“We’ll leave our prices as they are for the insulins on the market today,” Ricks told the Vermont senator. “In fact, we’ve been cutting them.”
Meanwhile, Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen said the Danish company is committed to limiting price increases to “single digits.” 
Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson responded that the company has a “responsible pricing policy.” 
He also noted that net prices for Sanofi’s insulin products are actually falling. Net price refers to the amount insurers pay for an insulin drug after discounts and rebates. It is typically lower than the price a product is listed for.

All three companies have faced years of political pressure to make insulin more affordable for people with diabetes. 
In March, they each announced that they will slash the prices of their most widely used insulin products. 
Lilly said it would price its Lispro injection at $25 a vial, effective May 1, and slash the price of its Humalog and Humulin injections by 70% starting in the fourth quarter.
The company also said it would cap out-of-pocket costs for people with private insurance at $35 per month at participating retail pharmacies.
Novo Nordisk said it would cut the list price of its NovoLog insulin by 75% and lower the prices for Levemir and Novolin by 65% starting next year.
Sanofi said it plans to cut the price of its most popular insulin drug, Lantus, by 78% and reduce the list price of its short-acting insulin, Apidra, by 70%. 
At the hearing, Sanders called those actions “good news” and a result of public pressure. 
But the senator said the committee intends to hold a hearing next year to ensure those price cuts are “in fact happening.” 
“We just don’t want words. We want actions,” Sanders said in his opening remarks.
“We must make sure price reductions go into effect in a way that every American with diabetes gets insulin they need at an affordable price,” Sanders added. 

CVS, Express Scripts, Optum Rx

The hearing also gathered other major players in the insulin industry: top executives from three of the biggest pharmacy benefit managers. 
Those executives were David Joyner, president of CVS Health pharmacy services; Adam Kautzner, president of Express Scripts; and Heather Cianfrocco, CEO of Optum Rx.
PBMs are the middlemen which negotiate drug prices with manufacturers on behalf of health insurance plans. They are often criticized for allegedly inflating drug prices and not passing on all the discounts and rebates they negotiate to consumers.
Joyner stressed that CVS Health passes on more than 98% of all rebates back to clients. 
“We have always prioritized being really transparent offerings to the marketplace,” he said during the hearing. 
But Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., stressed that 84 cents on every dollar goes to the PBMs.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, also highlighted a colossal gap between the list and net prices of insulin from 2012 and 2021. 
Collins asked Ricks to explain “who gets that money” because, “I can tell you that it is not going to the consumer at the pharmacy counter.” 
Ricks told her to ask the PBMs “how that money gets redistributed.” 

Government caps

Roughly 37 million people in the U.S. have diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Approximately 8.4 million diabetes patients rely on insulin.
High prices have forced many Americans to ration insulin or reduce their use of the drug. A 2021 study in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that nearly 1 in 5 U.S. adults either skipped, delayed or used less insulin to save money.
The Inflation Reduction Act, the Democratic plan that Biden signed last year, capped monthly insulin costs for Medicare beneficiaries at a $35 monthly prescription, but it fell short of providing protection to diabetes patients who are covered by private insurance.
More than 2 million patients with diabetes who take insulin are privately insured, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Another 150,000 or so patients who take insulin do not have insurance, HHS says.
Last month, Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Collins introduced bipartisan legislation that would require private health insurance to cap prices at $35 per month for one of each insulin type and dosage form.
Those insulin types include rapid, short, intermediate and long acting, as well as pre-mixed. Dosage forms include vials, pens and inhalers. More

A bankruptcy judge Wednesday halted the Phoenix Suns’ deal that would have seen its games leave bankrupt Diamond Sports’ regional sports network.
Late last month, the Suns said they entered into a deal with a local broadcast station owner and streaming tech company to air games and exit the traditional cable-TV model.
The judge ruled the Suns violated the bankruptcy code by closing the deal without seeing through an appraisal process to determine the higher valuation for the Suns’ media rights.

A view during the second half in Game Two of the NBA Finals between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Phoenix Suns, Phoenix Suns Arena, July 8, 2021.
Christian Petersen | Getty Images

The Phoenix Suns’ move to exit cable TV is no slam dunk.
A judge Wednesday halted the NBA team’s recently inked deal to air regular season games on local broadcast TV and a direct-to-consumer streaming service and exit its agreement with a regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports.

The Suns late last month said they reached a “groundbreaking” deal with broadcast station owner Gray Television to air all their regular-season games, beginning next year, on local broadcast networks available across Arizona. The team also signed a deal with Kiswe, a privately held video technology company, to start its own direct-to-consumer streaming service.
The agreement would have been unique in that a professional sports team was exiting the regional sports business — which has long provided lucrative fees to teams and leagues — in favor of bringing games back to fans through their local TV stations.
The Suns since 2011 have aired their regular-season games on the Diamond-owned and Bally’s-branded regional sports network, which was previously under the Fox Sports banner. Diamond filed for bankruptcy protection in March.
Diamond quickly shot back at the Suns, Gray Television and Kiswe in court papers, calling on the bankruptcy judge to uphold the automatic stay placed over all of Diamond’s contracts once it was under chapter 11 protection. Diamond has argued the Suns didn’t honor the so-called backend rights of its contract, which gave Diamond the right of first refusal and allowed for an appraisal process to see which media rights deal held the better valuation.
On Wednesday, Judge Christopher Lopez ruled the Suns violated a section of the bankruptcy code and must comply with the terms of their current agreement with Diamond. He added the Suns and Diamond must come to a consensual agreement and find an appraiser to move the process forward.

The judge did not find that Gray Television or Kiswe violated the contract.
The Suns argued in court papers the deal with Diamond ended at the conclusion of the regular season and the team had attempted to negotiate a new agreement prior to the expiration.
However, the judge found the Suns moved too quickly to announce the deal in late April without proper communication with Diamond. The Suns added a clause at the end of its April 28 news release that the media rights deal was subject to league approval and “any required resolution with the incumbent regional sports partner.”
In a statement Wednesday, a Suns spokesperson said the franchise and the WNBA team Phoenix Mercury — which is also part of the rights deal with Gray — “are excited to continue giving our fans everything they want for the best possible experience and making our games accessible to everyone.”
“We are committed to working collaboratively on a fair resolution that will be in the best interest of our fans, our community, and our players,” the spokesperson said. More

The Walt Disney Company isn’t the only business in Florida that operates within a special district, CEO Bob Iger reminded investors.
Such areas like the Daytona Speedway and the Villages haven’t faced the same scrutiny from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Iger said.
“This is about one thing and one thing only and that’s retaliating against us for taking a position about pending legislation,” the CEO added.

A view of the Walt Disney World theme park entrance on July 8, 2020 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
Octavio Jones | Getty Images News | Getty Images

The Walt Disney Company isn’t the only business in Florida that operates within a special district, CEO Bob Iger reminded investors Wednesday.
He noted that the Daytona Speedway and the retirement community The Villages reside within two of nearly 2,000 special districts in the state and have not been under the same scrutiny Disney has experienced in the last year.

“The case that we filed last month made our position and the facts very clear,” he said during an earnings call. “And that’s really that this is about one thing and one thing only and that’s retaliating against us for taking a position about pending legislation.”
The battle began last year, when Disney came out against a Florida bill limiting classroom discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity, which critics dubbed “Don’t Say Gay.”
DeSantis’ office referred CNBC to previous comments made by the governor.
“You can’t have a situation where the legislature has spoken and one company just decides to contract out against the will of the people,” the governor said during an interview with Newsmax on Friday. “At the end of the day, they just have to understand the party is over for them.”
DeSantis is expected to run for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, although he is a distant second in primary polls to former President Donald Trump, a fellow Florida resident.

Earlier this week, Disney expanded its federal lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, accusing the Republican leader of doubling down on his “retribution campaign” against the company by signing legislation to void Disney’s development deals in Orlando.
Disney’s amended lawsuit also noted that Florida’s Republican-led Legislature passed legislation last week targeting Walt Disney World’s monorail system.
Iger addressed the “false narrative” that Disney is battling DeSantis to protect tax breaks in the district. He said the company is the largest taxpayer in central Florida, having paid more than $1.1 billion in state and local taxes last year.
“And we all know there was no concerted effort to do anything to dismantle what was once called Reedy Creek special district until we spoke out on the legislation,” he said. “So this is plainly a matter of retaliation while the rest of the Florida special districts continue operating basically as they were.”
Iger said that if the state’s goal is to “level the playing field,” then the oversight needs to be applied to all special districts.
“And I think it’s also important for us to say our primary goal has always been to be able to continue to do exactly what we’ve been doing there, which is investing in Florida,” he added. “We never wanted, and we certainly never expected, to be in the position of having to defend our business interests in federal court, particularly having such a terrific relationship with the state as we’ve had for more than 50 years.”
Iger said Disney still plans to spend more than $17 billion in investments at Walt Disney World over the next decade, which would create around 13,000 jobs at the company and generate even more taxes for Florida. The company currently employs more than 75,000 people in the area. More

Disney+ will add content from Hulu to create a “one-app experience,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said.
Standalone options for all of the company’s streaming platforms will remain, he added.
The move comes as Disney has been weighing whether it should buy all of Hulu.

Rafael Henrique | SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images

Disney said Wednesday it would add Hulu content to its Disney+ streaming app, while also announcing it would raise the price of its ad-free streaming service later this year.
CEO Bob Iger said the company would soon begin offering a “one app experience” in the U.S. that incorporates Hulu content into its flagship streaming service, Disney+. Standalone options for all of Disney’s platforms, including ESPN+, will remain.

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“This is a logical progression of our DTC offerings that will provide greater opportunities for advertisers, while giving bundle subscribers access to more robust and streamlined content resulting in greater audience engagement and ultimately leading to a more unified streaming experience,” Iger said during Wednesday’s earnings call.
Iger attributed the move toward a one-app location for both Disney+ and Hulu content to the “advertising potential for the combined platform.” While Hulu has long offered an ad-supported option for subscribers, Disney+ launched the cheaper tier last year.
Disney, along with peers like Netflix, began offering cheaper, ad-supported options last year as subscriber growth began to slow and companies began focusing on making streaming profitable. Iger on Wednesday said the company viewed its ad-supported as another way for its streaming business to reach profitability.
While Disney+ lost 4 million subscribers in the second quarter, Iger said the rise in subscription pricing wasn’t to blame. Due to this, the company believes there is “pricing elasticity” when it comes to streaming. Pushing customers toward the ad-supported option, along with raising prices, “are among the things we’re doing to get to profitability,” Iger said.
Iger added he doesn’t expect to raise the pricing for Disney+’s ad-supported option anytime soon, unlike its ad-free option.

Disney will begin to roll out the one-app offering by the end of the calendar year, and Iger said the company would share further details at a later time.
The move comes as Disney has been weighing whether it should buy all of Hulu. Disney owns 66% of Hulu at the moment, while Comcast owns the rest.
The companies reached a deal in 2019 in which Comcast can force Disney to buy (or Disney can require Comcast to sell) that remaining stake in January 2024 at a guaranteed minimum total equity value of $27.5 billion, or about $9.2 billion for the stake.
Although Iger in February showed openness to offloading Disney’s stake in Hulu, saying in a CNBC interview that “everything was on the table,” the Disney CEO’s tune seemed to change on Wednesday.
Iger noted that some discussions have happened with Comcast, which have been “cordial and constructive.”
“I can’t say where they will end up, but there seems to be real value in having general entertainment combined with Disney+,” Iger said.
“I had another three months to study this carefully, and the best path to grow this business. The content on Disney+ with general entertainment is a very strong combination from a subscriber acquisition and subscriber retention perspective, and for advertisers,” Iger said Wednesday. “So where we’re headed is a one-app experience that will have Disney+ and general entertainment content.”
This is also a pivot from Iger’s earlier comments regarding general entertainment content. In February, he signaled Disney would lean into franchise content, saying general entertainment, particularly on pay-TV, wasn’t a “differentiator.” On Wednesday he said his past comment was “a little harsh.”
Disney also announced its fiscal second quarter earnings on Wednesday. The company reported $21.82 billion in revenue, up 13% from the same period last year and beating estimates.
It said its streaming losses had narrowed year over year, even as it lost subscribers during the most recent period.
Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC. More

Disney’s streaming losses narrowed during the fiscal second quarter, as price increases helped offset the loss of subscribers at Disney+.
The company posted revenue and profit in line with Wall Street’s projections.
Disney reported significant growth at its theme parks during its second fiscal quarter. However, its linear TV unit struggled.

Disney on Wednesday reported that its streaming losses narrowed as price increases helped offset the loss of 4 million subscribers at Disney+.
The company, which posted revenue and profit in line with Wall Street’s projections, also reported significant growth at its theme parks during its second fiscal quarter. Its linear TV unit struggled, however.

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Disney shares fell more than 4% in extended trading. The stock was up more than 16% so far this year as of Wednesday’s close.
This is CEO Bob Iger’s second earnings report since returning to the helm of the company late last year. He is overseeing a broad restructuring, including a targeted total of 7,000 job cuts. Disney plans to roll out its third wave of layoffs before summer.  
Here are the results, compared with analyst estimates:

EPS: 93 cents per share adjusted vs. 93 cents per share expected, according to a Refinitiv survey
Revenue: $21.82 billion vs. $21.78 billion expected, according to Refinitiv
Disney+ total subscriptions: 157.8 million vs. 163.17 million expected, according to StreetAccount

Iger’s second tenure at Disney also comes as legacy media companies contend with a rapidly shifting landscape, as ad dollars dry up and consumers increasingly cut off their cable subscriptions in favor of streaming.
Yet the streaming space has been difficult to navigate in recent quarters, as expenses have swelled and consumers become more cost conscious about their media spending.

Wall Street had expected Disney+ subscriptions to grow less than 1% during the quarter to reach 163.17 million users. However, the service saw a 2% decline in memberships, falling to 157.8 million subscribers from 161.8 million as of Dec. 31. The majority of these losses came from an 8% drop in membership at India’s Disney+ Hotstar. An additional 600,000 subscribers were lost domestically. 
The company’s direct-to-consumer operating income losses were narrower than expected, however, with Disney posting a loss of $659 million during the quarter, compared to a loss of $841 million projected by Street Account. Revenue for the unit rose 12% to $5.51 billion, reflecting recent price increases.
Disney said the lower operating loss was due to improved results at Disney+ and ESPN+ during the quarter, partially offset by lower operating income at Hulu.
The company also saw higher subscription revenue at Disney+, where average revenue per user rose 20% to $7.14 for domestic subscribers. This gain was offset by a 20% fall in revenue for Disney+ Hotstar, which pushed global Disney+ ARPU to just $4.44, lower than the $4.52 projected by Street Account.
Disney said Wednesday it would add Hulu content to its Disney+ streaming app, while also announcing it would raise the price of its ad-free streaming service later this year.
Additionally, the company plans to remove more content from its streaming platforms, which it expects will result in impairment charges of between $1.5 billion and $1.8 billion. It also plans to roll out a smaller volume of content going forward.

Other challenges, and a silver lining

Disney’s linear TV networks posted $6.63 billion in revenue for the period, down 7% from a year earlier.
Overall, for the three-month period ended April 1, Disney reported net income of $1.49 billion, or 69 cents a share, compared with $597 million, or 26 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding certain items, per share earnings for the most recent period were 93 cents.
Revenue for the quarter rose 13% year over year to $21.82 billion.
A bright spot for Disney came from its parks, experiences and products divisions, which saw a 17% increase in revenue to $7.7 billion during the most recent quarter.
Around $5.5 billion of that revenue came from its theme park locations. The company said guests spent more time and money during the quarter visiting its parks, hotels and cruises both domestically and internationally. Its cruise business, in particular, saw an increase in passenger cruise days.
Beyond day-to-day operations at the company, shareholders and industry analysts expect Iger to address a number of ongoing challenges during Disney’s earnings call Wednesday.
On Monday, Disney expanded its federal lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, accusing the Republican leader of doubling down on his “retribution campaign” against the company by signing legislation to void Disney’s development deals in Orlando.
In addition, the company is already seeing ripple effects from the writers’ strike, including the production shutdowns of Marvel Studios’ “Blade,” which was set to begin filming in Atlanta next month, as well as the Disney+ Star Wars series “Andor.” More

Disney CEO Bob Iger kicked off the company’s earnings call by praising rival Universal Studios’ blockbuster “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.”
The Nintendo-based flick has grossed over $1.1 billion worldwide, while Disney’s recent animated offerings have struggled at the box office.

Chris Pratt and Charlie Day voice Mario and Luigi in Universal and Illumination’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.”

The Magic Kingdom is a fan of the Mushroom Kingdom.
Disney CEO Bob Iger used part of his opening remarks during an earnings call Wednesday to praise rival Universal Studios’ “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and its success at the global box office.

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“Allow me to digress for a moment to congratulate Universal for the tremendous success of ‘Super Mario Bros.'” Iger said. “It certainly proves people love to be entertained in theaters around the world, and it gives us reason to be optimistic about the movie business.”
Universal didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Iger’s remarks.
“The Super Mario Bros. movie” has generated more than $1.1 billion globally since its early April release, proving that family-friendly films, particularly animated films, can succeed in the wake of the pandemic.
Disney’s theatrical animated content has lagged at the box office since the pandemic. Some analysts blamed the sluggish ticket sales on confusion in the marketplace over which Disney films were streaming-only and which had wider theatrical releases. Others said Disney has done a poor job marketing its animated films to the public.
“Lightyear,” a spinoff from the highly lucrative Toy Story series, tallied just over $200 million globally last summer, and fall’s “Strange World” flopped with less than $100 million in global ticket sales.

Meanwhile, Universal has churned out hit after hit at the box office, with “Minions: The Rise of Gru” generating nearly $940 million globally and “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” snaring nearly $500 million worldwide.
The widespread success of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” could pave the way for Disney’s upcoming releases, which include Pixar’s “Elemental” and the Thanksgiving release “Wish.” As parents and kids file into theaters to see the Nintendo-based flick, they were treated to ads for other upcoming animated features, including Disney’s slate.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. More