Coronavirus: Disney's $1.4bn hit highlights challenges for media companies

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Theme park closures have hammered profits but the entertainment giant's new streaming service has enjoyed strong take-up.

Before the crisis, he said, the resort typically welcomed 80,000 visitors a day but, when it reopens on Monday next week, visitor numbers will be restricted for at least a few weeks to just 24,000 a day.Worse may be yet to come in the division during the current quarter as Disneyland Paris and Disneyland California only closed on 14 March - meaning that the impact of their closure only affected a couple of weeks on the most recent three monthly reporting period.

Its streaming service, Disney+, launched in November and has already signed up 54.5 million subscribers. The New York Times Company, publisher of one of America's most famous newspapers, exemplified an issue UK newspaper publishers have also noted. That was despite winning 587,000 new digital subscriptions during the quarter, most of them for the core news product as opposed to apps such as the crossword puzzle, which was a record.

ITV, the UK's leading terrestrial commercial broadcaster, reported a 2% rise in total viewing hours - comprising viewing on live television, video on demand, recordings or on the online ITV Hub service - during the first three months of the year.ITV said total advertising, which had been down by 1% in January and up by 8% in February, was flat in March and, in April, down by a thumping 42%.

Emmerdale has reportedly asked its scriptwriters to prepare 'two hander' episodes in which just two characters appear - something regarded as revolutionary when the BBC's Eastenders first tried it in 1986 - so they can be filmed quickly and in full observation of social distancing rules.

 

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