Disney (DIS) earnings Q4 2025

Disney reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday that topped analyst expectations for earnings but missed on revenue as the company’s entertainment business was weighed down by its TV networks and a lackluster theatrical film slate.

Disney stock fell roughly 6% in premarket trading.

Here is what Disney reported for the period ended Sept. 27, compared with what Wall Street expected, according to LSEG: 

• Earnings per share: $1.11 adjusted vs. $1.05 expected
• Revenue: $22.46 billion vs. $22.75 billion expected

Net income for the quarter was $1.44 billion, or 73 cents a share, more than double the $564 million, or 25 cents per share, that Disney reported in the same period last year. Adjusting for one-time items Disney reported earnings per share of $1.11. 

The company’s overall revenue for the quarter was nearly $22.5 billion, slightly less than the same quarter last year. 

Disney also said it plans to boost its dividend and double its share buyback plan for fiscal 2026.

“Overall we’re leaving the year with a lot of momentum,” Disney CFO Hugh Johnston told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Thursday regarding the company’s streaming and experiences businesses.

Revenue for Disney’s entertainment unit fell 6% from last year to $10.21 billion, dragged down by the linear TV networks and theatrical releases. 

Disney’s TV networks, including ESPN, have been unavailable for customers of Google‘s YouTube TV, a streaming provider of the pay TV bundle since Oct. 31 due to an ongoing carriage dispute between the two companies.

Johnston told “Squawk Box” on Thursday that Disney is still in the midst of negotiations with YouTube TV, but the company was prepared for what it expected to be “challenging battle,” and Disney is “ready to go as long as they want to.”

Advertising revenue for the networks, which includes broadcast network ABC and pay TV channels like FX, also suffered. Part of this was attributable to lower political advertising, or a $40 million impact compared with the same quarter last year, Disney said. The company also noted that its 2024 joint venture deal for India Hotstar impacted its linear network results.

Streaming remained the bright spot in the business as consumers continued to turn away from the pay TV bundle. Operating income for the linear networks dropped 21% to $391 million while it rose 39%, to $352 million, for streaming. The higher operating income for streaming occurred as prices increased for Disney’s streaming services. 

Disney’s streaming growth was also the result of more options for its services. Earlier this year its carriage deal with Charter Communications broadened, giving the cable TV provider’s customers access to ad-supported Hulu. Initially, Charter’s pay TV customers had been receiving only Disney+.

While about half of the streaming subscriber increase could be attributed to the Charter carriage deal, Johnston said “the other half was retail,” with a big portion of that coming from international markets. Disney, like its media peers Warner Bros. Discovery and Netflix, has seen most of its recent streaming growth come from global customers.

The company in August also launched its ESPN direct-to-consumer app, which mirrors all the content of the TV networks, ESPN+ and other additions. The app is also available for Charter’s pay TV subscribers.

Disney stopped reporting subscriber metrics for ESPN+, and did not give guidance on the newly launched app that goes by the same name as the TV network. Johnston on Thursday said the availability of ESPN via streaming has helped to stem customer losses and has also boosted engagement with ESPN.

However, Johnston called out Disney’s bundles as a driver of the ESPN app and streaming in general.

“One of the things I think we’re most excited about is fully 80% of those new retail subs on ESPN are actually bundled subs, which again, should contribute to engagement, should contribute to retention, and frankly make the service more valuable over time,” Johnston told “Squawk Box.”

The flagship streaming service Disney+ added 3.8 million paid subscribers, bringing its total to 131.6 million, while Hulu had 64.1 million customers. Disney has been in the process of integrating Hulu — which it took full control of earlier this year — into the Disney+ app. 

This marks the last time the company will report subscriber numbers and the average revenue per unit, or ARPU, for its streaming services, which includes Disney+ and Hulu.

Instead, Disney will follow in the footsteps of streaming behemoth Netflix, which earlier this year stopped updating investors on its subscriber count.

Revenue for Disney’s sports division, namely ESPN, was up 3% to roughly $4 billion, while operating income was flat at $898 million when compared with the same period last year. ESPN’s domestic operating income in particular decreased due to costs associated with the launch of the app in August, as well as higher programming costs. 

Revenue for the experiences segment, which consists of theme parks, resorts and cruises, as well as consumer products, rose 6% to $8.77 billion. Operating income for the segment was up 13% to $1.88 billion. 

The current economy hasn’t affected the Disney consumer when it comes to its experiences business, Johnston said Thursday on “Squawk Box.” He noted that bookings are up 3% and spending per person at parks was also up 5% in Disney’s fiscal first quarter.

“We’ve got continued momentum there,” Johnston said.

Disney attributed the growth in its cruise business to its gains, despite being offset by higher fleet expansion costs. Disney’s fleet will expand once again later this month.

Johnston noted cruises are selling out at the same rate that they had before, even though the fleet is bigger. “So that added capacity is filling up quickly,” he added.