Mediagazer: Disney reports Q3 revenue up 4% YoY to $22.3B, a $460M net loss, down from a $1.41B net income YoY, and India's Disney+ Hotstar service losing 12.5M subscribers (Cynthia Littleton/Variety)

4:25 AM ET, August 10, 2023

Top News:

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Disney plans to raise US prices of Disney+ Premium, Hulu without ads, and ESPN+, and to expand Disney+ ad-supported plans to Canada and nine European countries — Ad-supported Disney+ tier to expand to Canada, U.K. and eight other European countries this fall

Cynthia Littleton / Variety:

Disney reports Q3 revenue up 4% YoY to $22.3B, a $460M net loss, down from a $1.41B net income YoY, and India's Disney+ Hotstar service losing 12.5M subscribers — Disney+ loses 300K customers in U.S. and Canada while streaming-only Hulu gains 300K — The Walt Disney Co. saw …

Discussion: New York Times, Forbes, SlashFilm, Axios, The Wrap, TechCrunch, The Walt Disney Company, IndieWire and CNBC

Kayla Cobb / The Wrap:

Bob Iger says cord-cutting trends are “unmistakable” and Disney is considering “a variety of strategic options” for its linear TV assets such as ABC — Bob Iger says the company is “considering a variety of strategic options” for assets like ABC

Discussion: The Hollywood Reporter, The Hollywood Reporter, @zdarsky.bsky.social, TVNewsCheck and CNN

Scott Mendelson / The Wrap:

Bob Iger says Disney is expecting content spending in 2023 to be $27B, about $3B lower than previously guided, in part due to the Hollywood strikes — The company had previously expected to spend $30 billion this year — Walt Disney is cutting its content budget for the year by $3 billion …

Discussion: The Hollywood Reporter, Reuters, The Hollywood Reporter, Awful Announcing and Hollywood Reporter

Lucas Manfredi / The Wrap:

Bob Iger says “anyone who wanted to speculate about” potential Disney sale “would have to immediately consider the global regulatory environment” — “Obviously anyone who wanted to speculate about such things would have to immediately consider the global regulatory environment …

Discussion: @carlquintanilla

Adam Chitwood / The Wrap:
Bob Iger says Disney is “actively exploring ways” to crack down on password sharing and “will roll out tactics to drive monetization sometime in 2024”

Discussion: The Verge, Mashable, MobileSyrup, Screen Rant, @carnage4life@mas.to, Insider and KXAN Austin, more at Techmeme »

Etan Vlessing / The Hollywood Reporter:

Lionsgate delays the planned split of Lionsgate and Starz to the first quarter of 2024, citing the eOne deal, Hollywood strikes, and a “disruptive marketplace” — The Hollywood giant, led by CEO Jon Feltheimer, has pushed the timing for a spin off of its studio business …

Discussion: The Wrap and Deadline

Scott Mendelson / The Wrap:
Lionsgate reports Q1 revenue up 1.6% YoY to $909M vs. $893M est., a $70.7M net loss, and Motion Picture revenue up 46% to $406.5M driven by John Wick: Chapter 4

Discussion: Lionsgate, Variety and Media Play News

Nicola Agius / Search Engine Land:

X unveils Sensitivity Settings and Enhanced Blocklist to boost brand safety and control for advertisers, rolling out over the next few weeks in the Ads Manager — The new tools give marketers more say over ad placement. — X, formerly known as Twitter, has launched two new features …

Discussion: X for Business, Engadget, The Register, MobileSyrup, Social Media Today, @elyanathierry, @xbusiness, @lindayax, TechCrunch, Forbes, Mashable and Adweek, more at Techmeme »

Alex Weprin / Hollywood Reporter:

Filing: Dave Portnoy acquired Barstool Sports for $1 from Penn Entertainment, which says it expects to record a loss of between $800M and $850M on the deal — Penn Entertainment estimates that it will take a loss of as much as $850 million on Barstool. — Just how much did Dave Portnoy pay …

Discussion: New York Post, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Awful Announcing, Fortune, Sportico, Bloomberg and Barrett Media

Matt Levine / Bloomberg:
The Penn-Barstool deal made sense for Penn and Dave Portnoy when he sold Barstool in 2020, and the Penn-Disney deal makes sense now as Portnoy regains Barstool

Discussion: Vox, The Atlantic, @theuncharles, Insider, Variety, The Athletic and Axios

Mathew Ingram / Columbia Journalism Review:

Q&A with Mark Rasch, a lawyer for Tim Burke, whose PCs and equipment were seized in a probe of Fox News video leaks, on the case's implications for journalists — In May, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation showed up at Tim Burke's home in Tampa, Florida, and seized several computers …

Discussion: @urbanachievr, @aaschapiro, @matthewkeyslive, @sally_yachts, @matthewkeyslive, @aaschapiro, Mediaite, @mathewi, @aaschapiro and @bubbaprog.ilovecitr.us

David Folkenflik / NPR:

Former Fox exec Preston Padden has joined a small band of vocal critics urging the FCC to deny Fox's renewal of its license to operate Fox 29 in Philadelphia — Preston Padden joined the Fox broadcast network a few years after its launch and helped founder Rupert Murdoch make it viable.

Discussion: @boulderpreston, @boulderpreston, @edourdoo, @farhip, @newscorpse, @davidfolkenflik, The Wrap and Washington Post

Thomas Germain / Gizmodo:

CNET is deleting older posts, calling such cuts a best practice for sites “primarily driven by SEO traffic”; Google says purging to improve SEO is “not a thing” — Google says deleting old pages to bamboozle Search is “not a thing!” as CNET erases its history.

Discussion: Search Engine Land, The Overspill, @searchliaison, @searchliaison, The Verge and @dannyjpalmer@infosec.exchange

Sara Guaglione / Digiday:

Podcast revenue at iHeartMedia, Spotify, and Acast grew between 12% and 31% YoY in Q2; PwC projects total podcast ad revenue to grow 25% YoY to $2.28B in 2023 — iHeartMedia, Spotify and Acast reported revenue growth between 12% and 31% year over year in their podcast businesses during …

Discussion: Podnews, Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter and RAIN News

Reuters:

PE firm Symphony Technology Group agrees to acquire media editing software maker Avid for ~$1.4B; Avid's products were used in Top Gun: Maverick and other films — Private equity firm Symphony Technology Group (STG) on Wednesday agreed to buy media editing software maker Avid Technology Inc …

Discussion: Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »

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