Bob Iger touted revenue gains, faced streaming subscriber losses, and took another shot at Ron DeSantis on Disney's Wednesday earnings call.
Disney's direct-to-consumer business shrank losses and showed strength as the company's legacy TV networks continue to fade and bear the cost of increasingly expensive sports rights in the midst of an advertising recession. Subscriber ranks at Disney+ declined by 2%, however, with the majority of those losses coming — as in the previous quarter — from India's Disney+ Hotstar, where subscriptions fell by 8% in the quarter. Domestic Disney+ subscriptions fell by 600,000.Over the past six months since replacing his onetime successor CEO Bob Chapek,has been wrestling with the scope of the company's assets — from ESPN to ABC and the film studios to its three separate streamers, Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu .