Business

Disney reported an increase in quarterly adjusted earnings per share, but slightly missed on revenue. 
The company’s streaming business continued to grow during the quarter, with operating income for the segment reaching $346 million compared with a loss in the same period last year, and an addition of 1.8 million Disney+ subscribers. 
Revenue and operating income for the parks and experience business grew during the quarter as there was an increase in guest spending at theme parks.

Disney reported results for its fiscal third quarter on Wednesday – posting earnings that topped expectations but revenue that came in just shy of analyst projections – as the company’s streaming business grew and its theme parks saw higher spending from consumers. 
CFO Hugh Johnston credited the quarter in part to the success of Disney’s streaming unit, anchored by its flagship service, Disney+.

“Just as a reminder, it was only a couple of years ago that we were losing a billion dollars a quarter on that business,” Johnston told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday. “It was trading purely on subs and not on financial results. We now really have a solid foundation.”
The growth in streaming has recently started to help to supplant the losses of the cash cow traditional TV business, which has been bleeding customers for years now.
Disney shares were down 2% in premarketing trading Wednesday.
Here is what Disney reported for the quarter ended June 28 compared with what Wall Street expected, according to LSEG:

Earnings per share: $1.61 adjusted vs. $1.47 expected
Revenue: $23.65 billion vs. $23.73 billion expected

Net income for the quarter was $5.26 billion, or $2.92 per share, more than double the $2.62 billion, or $1.43 a share, that the company reported for the same period last year. Adjusting for one-time items, primarily related to tax benefits associated with Disney’s purchase of Comcast’s Hulu stake, Disney reported earnings per share of $1.61. 

Disney’s overall revenue rose 2% to $23.65 billion, missing analyst expectations for the first time since May 2024. 
The company reported continued growth in its streaming business despite headwinds in the traditional TV bundle, which has suffered from declining customers. 
Disney upped its fiscal 2025 guidance on Wednesday and now expects adjusted EPS of $5.85 – an increase of 18% from fiscal 2024. In May, Disney issued guidance for expected full-year adjusted EPS of $5.75.

Streaming, parks, ESPN results

A statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse stands in a garden in front of Cinderella’s Castle at the Magic Kingdom Park at Walt Disney World on April 3, 2025, in Orlando, Florida.
Gary Hershorn | Corbis News | Getty Images

Revenue for Disney’s experiences segment, which includes theme parks, resorts and cruises as well as consumer products, increased 8% to $9.09 billion. Domestic theme parks revenue was up 10% to $6.4 billion, in particular as there was an increase in spending at theme parks and higher volumes in passenger cruise days and resort stays. 
Johnston told “Squawk Box” on Wednesday that Walt Disney World had its “biggest” third quarter ever, adding that traffic at the Orlando, Florida, park was solid.
“I know there’s a lot of concern about the consumer in the U.S. right now. We don’t see it. Our consumer is doing very, very well,” he said.
International parks and experiences revenue was up 6% to about $1.7 billion. In May, Disney announced it reached a deal to bring a theme park and resort to Abu Dhabi. The expansion into the United Arab Emirates is not part of the earlier Disney pledge to spend $60 billion on theme parks over the next decade.
Meanwhile, revenue for Disney’s entertainment segment, which includes traditional TV networks, direct-to-consumer streaming and films, was up 1% to $10.7 billion. 
While revenue for the direct-to-consumer streaming business rose 6% to $6.18 billion, the entertainment segment as a whole was weighed down by the traditional TV business, which saw revenue dip 15% to $2.27 billion. 
The direct-to-consumer streaming business was lifted, however, by the company’s flagship service, Disney+, which added 1.8 million subscribers, bringing its total to nearly 128 million. Total Hulu subscribers grew 1% to 55.5 million. 

The atmosphere at the Disney Bundle Celebrating National Streaming Day at The Row in Los Angeles on May 19, 2022.
Presley Ann | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

The company said it expects a modest increase in Disney+ subscribers in its fiscal fourth quarter compared with its fiscal third quarter. Total Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions are expected to increase more than 10 million during the current period. 
Disney also raised its operating income expectation for direct-to-consumer streaming to $1.3 billion for fiscal year 2025.
Domestic revenue for ESPN increased 1% to $3.93 billion, while its domestic operating income dropped 7% to $1.01 billion. Those results were impacted by higher programming and production costs, particularly due to NBA and college sports rights. 
ESPN on Tuesday announced a deal with the NFL in which the pro football league will take a 10% stake in the company. 
And separately on Wednesday, ESPN announced that its forthcoming full-service streaming app will launch on Aug. 21 and that WWE live events are coming to the app and in some cases to the linear ESPN network. 
Johnston said he expects the new streaming service to be “accretive to overall earnings growth.”
The traditional TV business once again dragged down the entertainment unit. Total operating income for the linear networks – which includes broadcaster ABC as well as pay TV channels like FX – fell 28% to $697 million, impacted by a decline in advertising revenue due to lower viewership and rates. 

A still from Disney and Pixar’s animated film “Elio.”

Disney’s theatrical unit, comprised of content sales and licensing, suffered from tough comparisons to the year-earlier period, which saw the release of “Inside Out 2.” The Pixar movie was the highest-grossing animated movie ever, surpassing Disney’s “Frozen II.”
The division reported an operating loss of $21 million for the most recent period, compared with operating income of $254 million in the same period last year.
Revenue for the unit was up 7% to $2.26 billion during the quarter, as Disney released “Elio,” “Thunderbolts*” and “Lilo & Stitch.” The original animated film “Elio” set a record low for the Pixar animation studio, notching just $21 million in ticket sales during its first three days in theaters.
– CNBC’s Robert Hum contributed to this report. 
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of CNBC. 

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Correction: This story has been updated to correct that Disney raised its operating income expectation for direct-to-consumer streaming to $1.3 billion for fiscal year 2025. A previous version misstated the guidance. More

Energy Star, a public-private partnership administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is reportedly on the chopping block as part of massive budget cuts proposed by the Trump administration.
Roughly 2,500 builders, developers and manufactured housing firms participate in the Energy Star Residential New Construction program, which sets strict energy-efficiency guidelines required to earn its designation.
Last year, more than 8,800 commercial buildings earned the Energy Star, saving more than $2.2 billion and preventing more than 5.7 million metric tons of emissions.

An Energy Star sign on a building.
Lynne Gilbert | Moment Mobile | Getty Images

A version of this article first appeared in the CNBC Property Play newsletter with Diana Olick. Property Play covers new and evolving opportunities for the real estate investor, from individuals to venture capitalists, private equity funds, family offices, institutional investors and large public companies. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
Most people think of Energy Star as the little blue sticker on their appliances that tells them they will see some measure of energy-efficiency savings on their utility bills. But Energy Star, a public-private partnership administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is a lot more than that. Now it is reportedly on the chopping block as part of massive budget cuts proposed by the Trump administration.

Roughly 2,500 builders, developers and manufactured housing firms participate in the Energy Star Residential New Construction program, which sets strict energy-efficiency guidelines required to earn its designation. Last year, more than 8,800 commercial buildings earned the Energy Star, saving more than $2.2 billion and preventing more than 5.7 million metric tons of emissions, according to the Energy Star website. 
Even more critical to property owners, Energy Star also includes a software platform that is the fundamental infrastructure for energy tracking across commercial real estate. The EPA’s Energy Star Portfolio Manager tool connects utilities to landlords and then to dozens of state and municipal governments who rely on it to uphold their energy and climate policies, many of which include tax breaks and financial subsidies for energy savings.
The EPA announced massive job cuts and restructuring in early May, and while it didn’t specifically mention Energy Star, numerous reports, citing EPA documents, say it is part of the plan.

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An EPA spokesperson said in a statement, “EPA is continuing to work to implement the reorganization plans that were announced on May 2, 2025. EPA will provide updates on these plans as they become available.”
The agency declined to comment further. 

Landlords rely on Portfolio Manager data to maintain compliance with state and municipal regulation and to gauge energy performance of buildings in their portfolios and decide which ones need upgrades. Such upgrades could include new HVAC and lighting. 
The tool was used by more than 330,000 buildings last year, comprising nearly 25% of all commercial building floorspace in the U.S., according to the EPA’s website. Seven states, 48 local governments and two Canadian provinces currently rely on the program and its software for their energy benchmarking and transparency policies, according to the agency. 
“There is a potential that they would defund the entire software platform. And so if the system disappears, the data disappears with it, and what this means is that that hub, that connected tissue around how utility landlord and state and municipal governments share energy data across them, that would all go away,” said Leia de Guzman, co-founder of Cambio, a real estate operations platform. 
At the very highest level, Energy Star Portfolio Manager supports $14 billion in energy cost savings per year, according to Guzman. 
“If you don’t have the data, you then don’t have any means to understand how to deploy retrofit initiatives across your building,” she said. 
Cambio, which ingests building data in order to automate real estate operations, can tap into Energy Star data from the past and is offering building owners and managers the option to back up data that already exists. It could not, however, get future data if the EPA takes its system down.
Industry organizations including the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), National Apartment Association (NAA) and National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) are fighting for the program’s existence. The concern is that if Energy Star, including the Portfolio Manager, were to lose federal backing and then be managed by a private entity, costs would go up.
“It’s a $32 million program for the government, but it provides, in terms of return on investment  — it’s huge,” said Nicole Upano, director of public policy for the NAA. “It provides hundreds of billions of dollars of savings for consumers and businesses in its current form, and if it were to be managed by an external company, that might result in a fee-based system that would increase the cost to use this program.”
If Portfolio Manager were no longer a government program, Upano said, the likely result would be a complicated patchwork of compliance. 
“As a government managed program, they don’t pick a horse.They’re very much focused on energy efficiency and reducing waste overall. But if, say, an external company were to manage it, they might focus on electrification over gas, or pick some sort of energy delivery system that they favor, and we would not like to see that,” she said.  More

ESPN will launch its direct-to-consumer streaming service — also named ESPN — on August 21.
The streaming app will include all ESPN content from its linear TV networks and will cost $29.99 a month.
On the same date and just ahead of college football and the NFL seasons, Fox Corp. will launch its own all-in-one streaming app, Fox One.

A general view of the ESPN Monday Night Countdown booth prior to the game between the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Cincinnati Bengals at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida, on Dec. 4, 2023.
Mike Carlson | Getty Images

ESPN will launch its new flagship streaming service — also named ESPN — on August 21.
Disney’s ESPN has been working on the all-in-one streaming app for some time in preparation for a launch this coming fall.

The app launches ahead of the upcoming NFL season — the highest rated live sports content — as well as the start of college football, where ESPN has expanded its portfolio. Fox Corp. will also launch its direct-to-consumer streaming service on the same date.
The ESPN app will cost $29.99 a month, and when bundled with Disney’s other streaming services, Disney+ and Hulu, will cost $35.99 per month.
The service will include a boatload of content, namely all of ESPN’s live games, as well as programming from its other networks like ESPN2 and the SEC Network, as well as ESPN on ABC. It’ll also include fantasy products, new betting tie-ins, studio programming, documentaries and more.

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On Wednesday, ESPN said it inked a deal with WWE for the U.S. rights to the wrestling league’s biggest live events, including WrestleMania, the Royal Rumble and SummerSlam, beginning in 2026. CNBC reported it will pay an average of $325 million annually in the five-year deal.
The company also announced late Tuesday that it reached a deal with the NFL, which includes the league taking a 10% equity stake in ESPN. As part of the deal, ESPN will acquire the NFL Network and other media assets from the league.
Disney on Wednesday reported quarterly earnings that topped analyst expectations, but revenue that came in just shy. More

ESPN’s new direct-to-consumer service will include all of WWE’s live premium events beginning in 2026; ESPN will also simulcast select events on its linear networks.
ESPN is paying TKO’s WWE an average of $325 million per year for five years, according to people familiar with the matter.
The WWE’s premium events package has been on NBCUniversal’s Peacock. WWE SmackDown will remain on Peacock and USA Network.

Triple H looks on during WrestleMania 41 Saturday at Allegiant Stadium on April 19, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Georgiana Dallas | WWE | Getty Images

The WWE is coming to ESPN.
The Disney-controlled sports and entertainment business will pay an average of $325 million per year for five years of U.S. rights to the WWE’s biggest live events, including WrestleMania, the Royal Rumble and SummerSlam, beginning in 2026, according to people familiar with the matter who declined to be naming speaking about the deal specifics. Spokespeople at WWE and ESPN declined to comment.

NBCUniversal’s Peacock had previously paid $180 million per year over five years for the package, according to two people familiar with the matter.
All 10 of the WWE’s premium live events each year will stream on ESPN’s new $29.99 per month direct-to-consumer platform in the U.S. Select events will be simulcast on ESPN’s linear networks.
Disney reported quarterly earnings Wednesday that showed domestic ESPN revenue up 1% to $3.93 billion.

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The WWE and ESPN have strategically moved closer together in recent years, said TKO Group President and Chief Operating Officer Mark Shapiro in an interview. TKO is the controlling owner of WWE. Shapiro, himself, was a top executive at ESPN in the early 2000s.
“In many ways, this is our destiny,” said Shapiro. “If you want to expand the audience, our fan base, the fervor around WWE, and grow on a real significant national scale, you can’t do that as it relates to the sports world without partnering with ESPN.”

ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro said he would have been interested in bidding on the package of events even if ESPN weren’t about to debut its new streaming service. Still, adding the events, for no extra charge, for subscribers of the digital product will help reduce churn for professional wrestling and help expand ESPN beyond traditional sports.
“Our place was built as the entertainment and sports programing network,” said Pitaro, referencing the literal meaning of the acronym, “ESPN.” “This is a fantastic way for us to expand our audience. It’s younger, it’s more diverse, and it’s more female than what we see at the network level.”
Thirty-eight percent of WWE’s audience is women, noted WWE President Nick Khan. About 50% of people who attend WWE live events come with children, he said in an interview.
“It’s multigenerational viewing, and we think ESPN is multigenerational viewing,” said Khan.
In 2024, the WWE signed a 10-year, $5 billion deal with Netflix to stream “Raw” every Monday night, beginning this year. Netflix will continue to stream marquee WWE events outside the U.S.
“SmackDown,” which airs Fridays on USA Network, will continue to stream on Peacock. That deal expires in 2029, according to people familiar with the matter.
Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC and USA Network.
Clarification: This story has been updated to clarify that ESPN will hold the rights to stream WWE premium live events in the U.S. Netflix holds those rights outside the U.S.

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Yum Brands has quietly become an incubator for future restaurant industry leaders.
CEOs like Brian Niccol, Kevin Hochman and Julie Felss Masino spent years at Yum before leaving to lead other restaurant companies.
Yum’s global footprint, well-known brands and corporate culture have earned the company a reputation for strong executive development.

Customers walk out of a Taco Bell and Pizza Hut restaurant during lunchtime in Los Angeles, California.
Kevork Djansezian | Getty Images

Looking for the next CEO for your restaurant chain? Try mining the ranks at Yum Brands.
The restaurant conglomerate, which owns Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell and reported quarterly results Tuesday, has supplied rival eateries with CEOs for decades. Between its globally recognized chains, massive international footprint and company culture, Yum has quietly become an incubator for future industry leaders.

“They have such a strong focus on leadership development, and in the past couple of decades, they have had very, very strong CEOs who have led very much ‘people first’ or ‘culture first,'” said Sarah Lockyer, chief brand officer of The Elliot Group, an executive search firm.
Yum’s status as a CEO training ground can trace back to its days as part of PepsiCo, which is also known for its talent development. The food and beverage giant owned KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell before spinning off the business as Tricon Global Restaurants in 1997. Five years later, the company was renamed Yum.
“Our commitment to unrivaled culture and talent enables our leaders to drive impact across our global business,” a Yum spoksperson said in a statement to CNBC. “As the largest restaurant company in the world, we’re proud that many industry leaders have roots at Yum!, and our strength is in how we continue to grow and elevate exceptional talent within our own organization.”
Lockyer pointed to past Yum CEOs like David Novak and Greg Creed, who she said gave other executives at the company the chance to shine and opportunities to grow their confidence and their resumes.
Take Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol. After starting his career at Procter & Gamble, he joined Yum in late 2005, when Novak led the company. Niccol had a stint as chief marketing officer of Pizza Hut before moving over to Taco Bell, where he introduced the chain’s Live Mas tagline and Doritos Loco Tacos.

When Creed transitioned from Taco Bell CEO to chief executive of Yum, Niccol took over his vacated role as head of the Mexican-inspired chain. Niccol left in 2018 to lead a turnaround at Chipotle, where he stayed for more than six years before Starbucks lured him away for another fix-up job.
While the coffee giant is still reporting same-store sales declines, Niccol said during the company’s earnings conference call last week that the comeback is ahead of schedule.

Brian Niccol, incoming CEO of Starbucks.
Anjali Sundaram | CNBC

Another much-lauded restaurant CEO with Yum connections is Kevin Hochman, who currently leads Brinker International. He joined Yum in 2014 as chief marketing officer of KFC and eventually rose to lead the U.S. businesses of both the fried chicken chain and Pizza Hut. He left Yum in 2022 to revive Brinker, which owns Chili’s and Maggiano’s Little Italy.
Under Hochman’s leadership, Chili’s has become the rare restaurant chain reporting double-digit same-store sales growth for multiple quarters. Savvy value-focused advertising and the viral Triple Dippers appetizer offering have helped the once-sleepy chain become a dining destination yet again. Since Hochman took the reins of Brinker, the stock has more than quintupled in value.
Like Niccol, Hochman also began his career at P&G, which has also long been known for its corporate leadership training. So did Arby’s President David Graves, who then spent eight years at Yum learning the ins and outs of the restaurant industry before jumping ship for the Inspire Brands sandwich chain.
For some Yum alumni, the internal competition for the top job means that they have to leave to take the next step in their careers. With three global restaurant chains under the broader Yum umbrella, the race to the top can be stiff.
“These companies have so much high-performing talent because they’re so large, there’s so many divisions, but there can only be one CEO of Yum Brands,” Lockyer said.
That’s also true for its brands, which can have marketing, operations, domestic and international executives all competing for the top spot.
Julie Felss Masino joined Yum as president of Taco Bell North America in 2018, following roles at Starbucks, Sprinkle Cupcakes and Mattel. Two years later, she became head of Taco Bell’s growing international business. Although she was positioned as a potential candidate to lead Taco Bell as CEO, she left the chain in June 2023, the same month that Taco Bell’s then-CEO Mark King announced his intent to retire and Yum tapped Sean Tresvant to succeed him. Two months later, Cracker Barrel announced Masino as its latest CEO.
More recently, Dave & Buster’s tapped Tarun Lal last month to lead the company after a months-long search that began even before his predecessor departed in December. The restaurant and arcade chain has seen its sales slide in recent months as low-income consumers spend less on dining out. Lal previously served as president of KFC U.S., which has had its own struggles winning over diners in recent months.

The exterior of a Dave & Buster’s restaurant is seen on June 10, 2025 in Austin, Texas.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images

When Dave & Buster’s announced Lal as its pick, BMO Capital Markets analyst Andrew Strelzik wrote in a note to clients that he was “surprised” the chain went for a restaurant operator over an amusement-industry veteran. But Lal’s resume — including more than two decades of experience across Yum’s international business — likely won over the board.
“Given execution issues the board has cited from prior CEO, it likely was looking for more of an operations background. Lal has run the ~4,000-unit KFC U.S. since 2022 and previously oversaw ~20,000 global units as KFC COO,” Strelzik said.
Yum veterans aren’t found only in the restaurant industry. Harley-Davidson on Monday announced Artie Starrs as the motorcycle company’s latest CEO.
Starrs is departing his role as chief executive of “eatertainment” chain Topgolf to take the new job. Prior to Topgolf, he served as Pizza Hut Global CEO.
Yum is also undergoing its own CEO transition. In October, CFO Chris Turner will take the reins from David Gibbs, who plans to retire after 37 years with the company. The hand-off could mean a bigger shakeup ahead for Yum’s executive ranks if other top executives like Chief Operating Officer Tracy Skeans, for example, decide to look externally for their next moves. More

Roku launched Howdy, a $2.99-per-month, ad-free streaming service.
The service runs alongside the free, ad-supported Roku Channel, and adds to Roku’s growing content lineup.
The streaming platform is expected to feature 10,000 hours of movie and TV content from Lionsgate, Warner Bros. Discovery and FilmRise.

A Roku remote in an arranged photograph in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, on May 2, 2021.
Bloomberg |Getty Images

Roku announced Tuesday it has launched Howdy, a commercial-free streaming service that costs $2.99 a month, in a shift for the company that has long been known for free, ad-supported viewing.
The streaming platform is expected to feature 10,000 hours of movie and TV content from Lionsgate, Warner Bros. Discovery and FilmRise, as well as its own, exclusive programming known as Roku Originals. The service is available across the U.S. beginning Tuesday.

“With the launch of Howdy, Roku is making beloved content from our catalog accessible to an even bigger audience,” said Johnny Holden, chief revenue and strategy officer at Radial Entertainment, the parent company of FilmRise, in a press release.
Roku, which also makes streaming hardware such as devices and TVs, launched its free, ad-supported streaming option, the Roku Channel, in 2017. These types of services, which also include Paramount Global’s Pluto and Fox Corp.’s Tubi, have seen accelerated growth when it comes to both viewership and advertising revenue.
The new service runs alongside the Roku Channel, which will remain free. Howdy will initially be available on the Roku platform, and will later be rolled out on mobile and other platforms, the company said.
“Priced at less than a cup of coffee, Howdy is ad-free and designed to complement, not compete with, premium services,” said Roku founder and CEO Anthony Wood in the release.
In June, the streaming and media giant signed a partnership deal with Amazon Ads, the advertising business of the tech behemoth, meant to expand Roku’s reach with advertisers. The agreement gives advertisers access to more than 80 million U.S. households, and includes Roku and Amazon’s Fire TV streaming devices, according to a press release announcing the partnership.
Roku reported second-quarter earnings on Thursday, posting revenue of $1.11 billion, which exceeded analysts’ expectations. Platform revenue increased 18% year over year to $975 million.

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There are few more frequent visitors to the executive suites of America’s biggest companies than the strategy whisperers at McKinsey, BCG and Bain. It helps that the corner office is often occupied by one of their alumni. Among the chief executives of America’s 500 most valuable companies, 36 spent time at one of the three prestigious consultancies, according to Altrata, a data provider, up from 25 in 2018. Household names from Alphabet and Coca-Cola to Citigroup and Visa are run by former consultants. But are they any good at the top job? More

Fox Corp. will launch Fox One, its direct-to-consumer streaming service, on Aug. 21. It will cost $19.99 per month.
Fox One will include all of Fox’s sports and news programming that appears on its broadcast and cable TV networks.
Fox’s move into streaming comes after dropping its efforts to launch Venu, a sports streaming joint venture, earlier this year.

Marquee at the main entrance to the FOX News Headquarters at NewsCorp Building in Manhattan. 
Erik Mcgregor | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Fox Corp. will launch its direct-to-consumer streaming service, Fox One, on Aug. 21, ahead of the NFL season, the company said Tuesday.
The new streaming service will cost $19.99 per month, and pay TV subscribers will receive access for free, said CEO Lachlan Murdoch during the company’s earnings call.

Fox One will host the entirety of the Fox TV portfolio — namely, live sports such as NFL and MLB that appear on its broadcast network, as well as news programming from its Fox News and Fox Business cable TV networks.
Fox airs NFL games on Sundays during the regular season, which kicks off this year on September 4. The broadcast network also airs MLB postseason games, as well as college football, which also takes place in the fall.
However, the streaming service won’t offer any exclusive or original content, Murdoch said, adding that much of its costs will come from overhead, marketing and technology. This is in contrast to most of Fox’s competitors, which spend on additional sports rights and other content exclusive to streaming.
“It’s important to remember that our subscriber expectations or aspirations for Fox One are modest,” Murdoch said.
The company has been slower than its peers to jump into the streaming game. While it already has the Fox Nation service and Tubi, a free, ad-supported streaming app, it has yet to offer its full content slate in a direct-to-consumer offering.

Murdoch previously said the cost for the service would be “healthy and not a discounted price,” in an effort to avoid further disrupting the pay TV bundle, which has suffered continued customer losses.
Fox’s portfolio is mainly made up of sports and news content since it sold its entertainment assets to Disney in 2019. This has shielded Fox from some of the cord-cutting headwinds that have affected its media peers in recent years.
On Tuesday, Murdoch reiterated that the company will be looking to bundle Fox One with other streaming services. However, he said the company will be careful on that front, similarly so as not to cause further damage to the pay TV ecosystem.
He said Fox is mindful of two factors when it comes to bundling. First, to offer the consumer a convenient package of its content, and potentially valuable bundles. And second, to keep the service “very focused” on a “targeted audience” of those customers without pay TV subscriptions.
“Sometimes those two things conflict with each other. So we want to be very targeted, but we also want to make it easy for our consumers and our viewers to gain our content, whether it’s in conjunction with other services or not,” Murdoch said.
Earlier this year, Murdoch told investors that Fox would launch its own answer to streaming after dropping its efforts for the joint sports streaming venture, Venu.
It will be joined by a new streaming offering from Disney’s ESPN in the coming weeks. While Disney already offers the ESPN+ streaming service, the company will launch a full-service ESPN direct-to-consumer product this fall. Disney earlier said that the app will cost $29.99 a month. Disney reports its quarterly earnings on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Fox reported total revenue for its most recent quarter of $3.29 billion, up 6% from the same period last year.
While the advertising market has been weak for media companies, particularly for content outside of live sports, Fox reported its advertising revenue increased 7%. The company said this was primarily due to growth from Tubi as well as “stronger news ratings and pricing,” despite a drag from the absence of major soccer events as compared to the year-earlier quarter. More