Disney profit misses estimates as streaming costs rise, ad sales soften

Walt Disney reported sales and profit that fell below Wall Street expectations, held back by weakness in advertising revenue and higher-than-expected losses in streaming TV.

Walt Disney reported sales and profit that fell below Wall Street expectations, held back by weakness in advertising revenue and higher-than-expected losses in streaming TV.

Walt Disney Co. reported sales and profit that fell below Wall Street expectations, held back by weakness in advertising revenue and higher-than-expected losses in streaming TV.Earnings in the last quarter of Disney’s fiscal year fell to 30 cents a share, excluding certain items, the company said Tuesday. That missed the average estimate of 51 cents from analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Sales, at US$20.2 billion, came up about US$1 billion short of analysts’ projections.

Sign up to get breaking news email alerts sent directly to your inboxShares of Disney fell as much as 7.2 per cent to US$92.66 in extended trading after the results were announced. The stock is down more than a third this year.Still, the company beat expectations for streaming subscriber additions in the period, signing up 12.1 million new customers for its flagship Disney+ service alone. Total subscribers, including those for its Hulu and ESPN+ products, rose to almost 236 million. Those numbers come after rival Netflix Inc. beat internal forecasts as well as Wall Street expectations in the most recent quarter, adding 2.41 million customers. Bloomberg