All right, Good afternoon, everybody. Great to see you. I'm Ben Swinburne, Morgan Stanley's media analyst. My own disclosures in my own voice. For important disclosures, please see the Morgan Stanley Research Disclosure website at morganstanley.com. If you have any questions, please reach out to your Morgan Stanley sales representative. And we are extremely excited to welcome to the conference for the first time Dana Walden, Co-Chairman of Disney Entertainment at The Walt Disney Company. Dana, thank you so much for being here.
Yeah, thank you, Ben. I'm happy to be here.
Maybe just to start us off, before we get into some of the questions around the business, it'd probably be helpful for the audience to talk a little bit about how Disney Entertainment is organized, sort of how you and Alan kind of manage the vast portfolio of Disney's assets.
Sure. As you know, when Bob came back to Disney, the first thing he did was restructure the company. And we're set up in a very clean structure, three segments. And you know Josh D'Amaro runs parks and experiences, Disney Experiences. Jimmy Pitaro runs ESPN. And then, as you said, Alan Bergman and I are partners overseeing Disney Entertainment. And the way we split our responsibilities is pretty clean. Alan oversees our film studios and branded series. I oversee global television. And then together we oversee Disney+ and Hulu, inclusive of ad sales, technology, and platform distribution. And Bob was very purposeful in this structure. He really restored the authority in our company, especially in Disney Entertainment, to creative executives who had owned P&Ls for a long time but understand how to create stories at scale.
As Bob likes to say, he connected the people who approved the spending to the revenue.
Yeah, that's a helpful explanation. So this audience is certainly very focused on P&L and driving value from the content that Disney creates. I think everybody understands Disney's opportunities to monetize IP are multiples around the business. But it'd be great if you could start by talking about how content drives value for the entire organization.
You know it starts with storytelling excellence. Obviously, Disney is known as, you know, I think, the best storytelling company in the world. So all of us, and I said Bob has a very lean leadership team. So we're constantly collaborating. We're sharing these amazing stories and characters throughout the entire organization. But you know it's hard, even sitting here in one answer, to capture all of the value because Alan and his team at the studios were number one at the box office by a significant margin, $5.5 billion. You know I think it's more than all the other studios combined, but if not very close. 10 of the top most streamed shows of the year, 50% of them are owned by Disney.
So again, that content that's driving Disney+ and Hulu, and then the activation of that content across our organization delivers value to consumers at every conceivable touch point. So the characters that I'm working with in our kids' content are the same characters that Alan is building films around and that Josh is bringing to life in stories across our parks, on our cruise line, in consumer products. So it is a chain of value across the entire enterprise.
Yep, yep. Let's talk about streaming, since that's probably everyone's primary focus, particularly when you look at the businesses that you're running. There's a lot going on in the industry. There's a lot of focus on scale. I think it's interesting when you look at the Nielsen data, when you aggregate Disney's assets, it's actually got typically the biggest audience of any of the media and tech companies. At the same time, streaming's growing, TV's under pressure, ESPN's pivoting. How do you bring that scale with all those sort of different growth trajectories together and take advantage of that and really differentiate Disney's streaming product to the consumer while at the same time delivering the margins that we're all super focused on?
I'd start by saying we are enormously proud of all we've accomplished in streaming, especially over the past two years. You know, as you well know, not too long ago, we were losing over $1 billion a quarter. We are now profitable, growing revenue, and delivering with visibility towards double-digit margins. So it starts with storytelling excellence, as we've talked about before. And how do we now bring together this amazing portfolio of stories across every conceivable genre? Kids, award-winning general entertainment, our big films, films that go straight to streaming. And in the not too distant future, ESPN flagship direct-to-consumer. Disney+ is still only five years old. Yeah, so all we have accomplished has been in a very short period of time.
As our technology advances and our teams are working specifically on features that lean into our unique differences, and I would point to the launch of Hulu on Disney+ recently for bundle subscribers, for subscribers to both Disney+ and Hulu, who can engage with all of those stories in the same app. It's an extraordinary value for subscribers. It's driving engagement. It is improving our churn dynamic. That in itself is cause for extreme optimism about our future. It's also, again, continuing to deliver. On March 12, Moana 2 will hit Disney+, and it will be a huge event for subscribers, both in terms of acquisition and engagement. Along the way, Mufasa hits at the end of March. Along the way, just a consistent stream of excellent shows. I'm really proud of the past year on the content side as well.
Our series won 60 Emmy Awards, and that was more than any of our competitors ever. And I think it is meaningful to point out that the rest of the industry split the other 69 awards. So it's value in the content and how we're delivering it to our subscribers.
The market's certainly focused on your ability to grow Disney+. You and I were chatting about some of those and the award-winning shows. Shōgun is one of my personal favorites, amazing show.
Yeah, I think at this point, it's probably the most award-winning show in history for a single season. I mean, it just most recently swept the SAG Awards, the Critics' Choice, the PGA, every conceivable award.
Yeah, and season two is on its way, right?
It is. We like to bake it carefully. We will not release season two until it's ready.
OK, we'll have to wait. I guess what I'm trying to get a sense of is just how content drives, particularly net adds, but just drives things that really matter to the business. So engagement, pricing power, churn. Can you talk a little bit about the role of your broad content offering in driving Disney+ growth, which is something certainly the market wants to see re-accelerate?
Yes, absolutely. I would say clearly we're focused on that growth, and we are going to deliver growth in subscribers, in profitability, in margin. I would say we're not focused on a single data point, right? We're focused on delivering growth long term. And that is through that pipeline of content. Obviously, we have tremendous opportunity internationally to grow. It's still a very young platform. We're working on our local originals so that we have content around the world that is relevant to local subscribers along with our big global hits. And again, our company is producing and releasing in streaming a huge number of hits that travel around the world. It's something that I have been at Disney now for going on seven years. I came from Fox, where we were also very focused on the value of creative risk-taking. Neither of these companies have ever played it safe.
We invest highly in our shows, and the efficiency that's created by, again, we look at Moana and what Alan's team has done with Moana 2, you know the original film, 2016, right? Just releasing the trailer for Moana 2 created a subscriber acquisition event on Disney+. It also shot Moana, the original, back to the top of the streaming charts where it sat for two years. That is alongside what Josh is doing in terms of storytelling in our parks with Moana at Epcot, on our newest cruise ship, so it is value overall, but that consistent stream of tentpole content that's then surrounded by incredible documentaries, award-winning general entertainment. It's not just Shōgun. It's The Bear, Only Murders in the Building. We have a new limited series coming up from Ellen Pompeo that's so buzzy that I know is going to drive tremendous engagement.
Alan and I work incredibly well together, and bringing those teams together has enabled us to not only program our platforms in a successful way, it's enabled us to make choices around how we window that content around our ecosystem of distribution.
Right, right. You mentioned before kind of local content internationally. Is that an area of focus for Disney from an investment point of view?
Absolutely. We have now had some of the slates are very young. They launched probably two years ago, and creating a pipeline of content takes some time, but the great news is in each of the regions, we've found bona fide hits. For example, in Korea last year, we released a show called Moving that signed up over 1.5 million subscribers and created a huge event in that market along with all of the rest of the content from the United States, so it's just local flavor. We're doing local for local, and then local for regional, and then global for the whole world.
Got it. So probably the next big event, at least that we're all focused on this year for streaming at Disney is ESPN making the big step out of the bundle into another bundle to some extent. But what does it mean for the business and the opportunity ahead for the Walt Disney Company to have ESPN's flagship move and come to market later this year?
I think Jimmy would probably argue with you that it's not outside of the bundle. It's and the bundle. But in terms of the specifics of the product, I'm going to let Jimmy talk to you about that. I've seen a little bit. It's incredibly exciting. The new features that they'll bring to market with the launch of Flagship, I think, are really going to blow people away. From a Disney+ perspective, though, sports is the biggest, most successful form of entertainment right now. It's obviously having the ability. We launched a few months ago an ESPN tile on Disney+ for standalone subscribers. And it's of enormous value to these subscribers. It's over 3,000 hours of long-form programming, the 30 for 30s. And then yesterday, we actually launched something I'm very excited about, which is SC+. It is a daily SportsCenter show produced by SportsCenter and ESPN.
It is going to help us, I think, to include people who are casual sports fans in this conversation that is obviously dominating cultures around the world, and again, a daily touch point for sports on Disney+, a reason every day to open the app, to check out what are the top 10 moments in sports, and then allow the algorithm to surface to those subscribers other content that they're going to engage with, so very meaningful to us.
Have you seen consumers really embrace the ESPN access on Disney+, particularly as you've been adding more content over the last few months?
Yes, absolutely. We've seen not only an uptick in being able to upgrade those subscribers right now into our Trio Bundle, which is Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+, but we're also seeing increased engagement with that type of content.
Got it. Let's also talk about an area that's really kind of core to the legacy of Walt Disney, which is kids and family programming. It's a very competitive space. Certainly, my kids are, I find, binging on YouTube more than I would like them to. But an area that Disney has such a long history, Disney+, I mean, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, excuse me. How would you sort of size up the competitive position today for Walt Disney and the kids and family, particularly in television? And is this sort of a focus and priority for you and the team to invest behind?
We are Disney. Obviously, the kids' audience has always been very important. I will share with you that creating and programming and developing features that are important to that audience, that's a top priority for us right now. We are very focused on it. I find when you talk about the kids' audience, it's important to recognize the nuances. It's not a monolith. If we start with preschoolers, Disney is the number one brand. The most streamed show in the United States last year was Bluey.
I was going to guess that.
You're going to guess?
I was going to get that right. I swear.
Yeah, because it's probably not just kids' watch, but it's an incredible show that 28 hours of content, which drove 60 billion minutes of engagement on Disney+ last year, but along with Bluey, there's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Spidey and His Amazing Friends, Ariel, all of the amazing characters and stories from the Disney canon that are constantly being reinvented and refreshed for our youngest possible fans, and we know that a connection when kids are very young is meaningful to affinity for our brand for the rest of their lives. I mean, I grew up in Southern California. My grandparents would come visit us every summer, and they would take us to Disneyland. I'm embarrassed to say that I was way more excited about going to Disneyland than seeing my grandparents, but I probably wasn't alone, and my kids growing up, Disney is a trusted environment for kids.
I felt totally safe putting them in front of the television for Disney Channel storytelling. And I think that's how parents feel now about the Disney+ environment. Clearly, as kids get older, they're consuming content on a number of different platforms. They're on social media. They're gaming. They're clearly on YouTube. And we have a meaningful and great partnership with YouTube. We produce thousands of videos based on our series specifically for YouTube. Disney Junior, I think, has 22 million subscribers. So why do we do that? We do that because we know that's where kids like to consume content along with Disney+. We want to keep them engaged. We want to keep incubating IP on a platform that's important to creators and kids.
Ultimately, the work we're doing now, although I have nothing specific to announce on the technology side, is features that will specifically address how kids are interacting with content right now in a very contemporary way. Very mindful of that. Then as kids get older, of course, they're watching content. They're watching live sports. They're watching live entertainment. We see it in Dancing with the Stars and American Idol. They are, of course, watching our giant tentpole animated films, and they're watching them over and over again. Again, looking holistically at that kids' audience, we know we have the stories that they love. We're working on the technology that will allow them to engage with them in the way they want.
I think recently you guys launched kind of live channels on Disney+. Is that targeted towards the kids and family?
Absolutely. And Disney Playtime has been very successful because, of course, parents don't have to keep selecting another show at the end, they can watch Bluey or all of our programming. And that, again, is helping us to introduce this young audience to multiple franchises.
That's the babysitter, the 24/7, the never-ending rolling show.
Yes, but it's a smart babysitter.
Yeah, exactly. So we were talking about YouTube. I mean, I think about the competitors to The Walt Disney Company today are different than they were 10, 20 years ago. Technology is super important to success for your company. Consumers' expectations of streaming have gone up, obviously. How would you describe Disney's strategy to sort of navigate what is an incredibly disruptive period? And specifically, Dana, do you need to become a great technology and product company to succeed? Everyone knows Walt Disney is a great content company. But as a direct-to-consumer business, those user interfaces, the technology behind it is really important.
You're absolutely right. I would say, though, that Disney is a great technology company and a great storytelling company. You think about Josh's teams and the Imagineers and how they bring the magic of these stories to life. At our parks, with technology in our Pixar films, how do we make our productions both efficient and more dazzling through technology? The acquisition of BAMTech, our advertising technology. We have moved forward significantly throughout time embracing technology as a vital tool to deliver these stories. Again, Disney+, very young, built on a platform that was ultimately supposed to serve high-quality video at scale and manage fundamental relationships with customers around onboarding and billing, and you see how far we've come in a very short period, a lot thanks to Hulu and how the technology was advanced there.
But now, having Hulu on Disney+, I will just point again, we've made key hires in our technology area, our head of technology, Adam Smith, who came from a long career at YouTube, and then a new head of engineering, Andre Rowe, who, again, came from decades at YouTube and then Meta, focused on algorithmic programming and personalization, deploying AI across all of our services. But you look at great technologists like that and say, "OK, why would you leave a technology company to come to the Walt Disney Company?" And it's very simple to work on the very best stories, characters, and have an extraordinary opportunity to keep driving that combination of the two towards all, again, all of those touch points.
So is technology and the work Adam's doing, is that sort of a near-term priority for you guys? Are you guys focused on that in 2025?
Absolutely. It is a top priority. And we keep releasing new features, streams, as you just talked about. When Flagship launches, and again, through having content for subscribers on Disney+ to engage with, we'll have the opportunity to entice and convince subscribers to upgrade into the Trio that will then include Flagship. And we think that will truly unlock the power of this portfolio of content across every genre. And that's all going to be enabled through technology.
I know you've been working on password sharing or addressing password sharing. Is technology playing a big role in that right now?
Yes, absolutely. That is how we have operationalized password sharing, which we're very pleased with and continue to lean into that in 2025.
A big part of the streaming growth story for the industry and Walt Disney is advertising. It's a big focus. You guys have been in that business, obviously, for a very long time. But I guess my simple question is really, is advertising a growth business for Walt Disney? And if it is, what allows you guys to differentiate what you're bringing to marketers versus what else is out there in the market, which is very, very competitive?
It's absolutely a growth area for us, and that's how we see it. We have an incredible team led by Rita Ferro. As you mentioned, Hulu was the original ad solutions partner on streaming video. We have a lot of experience. That technology and being able to advance it over all of these years is helping us with automation, programmatic targeting, the ability to work with the biggest DSPs to share data in a clean room. We are significantly ahead of our competitors in this space as a result. A huge priority and technology that continues to evolve, again, leaning into our unique assets. It's a very high-quality audience because it's across premium programming at scale in sports, even in linear, where we've seen significant ratings decline. The big sporting events are growing. We see this as a tremendous opportunity.
I know you've got the upfront coming up. Are you guys focused on innovation and bringing more of the streaming product to advertisers along with the rest of the portfolio this year in the upfront?
Yes, absolutely. It's clearly a priority for us. And you've seen our share of revenue shifting over time towards streaming. There's still, for a client that wants to buy across platforms and experience the full reach of The Walt Disney Company, which in terms of pure reach, we are the number one entertainment company, number one in the living rooms, according to Nielsen's just-released Gauge report, and have been for several months since they actually started releasing the report.
I would imagine that sports is playing a bigger and bigger role in terms of driving budget. Is ESPN integrated into your overall corporate offering from an advertising point of view?
Absolutely. We have the same sales team. Rita Ferro works across ESPN and Disney Entertainment.
Got it. But, Dana, I want to maybe just step back here in the last couple of questions that we have. You've been at, you said, almost seven years, maybe a little over seven years at the Walt Disney Company. When you reflect on your experience, are there particular things that stand out to you? And sort of what gets you most excited about the future?
It's an extraordinary company. I feel incredibly lucky that this is the path that my career took me on. I have worked in the creative area and in distribution as well, but working with the best storytellers on just this array of content when you think about just what's coming down the pipeline right now, or we talked a little bit about Paradise today. We are releasing the season finale of a show called Paradise that we released on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+. And it's just an edge-of-your-seat thriller. It reminds me of shows I've worked on, like Homeland and The Americans.
Our films, the upcoming slate or what Alan was able to do last year with Deadpool & Wolverine, Inside Out 2, Moana 2, and several other films that made hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office and now, thanks to streaming, are more valuable than ever. The ability to work with the best creators and the best creative talent is a privilege. I feel very lucky to be here.
Last question I had for you. There's a lot of focus, obviously, on leadership at Walt Disney going forward. The last four years, it's been a volatile period for the industry and for the company. Leadership changes, reorgs, the pandemic, labor strikes in Hollywood, a lot of potential distractions. I'm not trying to depress you or anything.
You just reminded me. It has been very rough for us, Ben, for everyone in the room.
Yeah, exactly. But yeah, look, I think shareholders want to hear about management's focus and the ability for the company to stay focused and avoid these distractions. And really, we want to hear your message to shareholders around kind of strategic alignment among senior management and the operating businesses as you guys look to the future. Can you comment on that?
Yes, absolutely. As I said before, this is such a talented, really, I would say, gifted group of leaders. It is a small leadership team who deliver so much value. The culture at Disney is excellent. This company is in incredibly good hands. And we've had the amazing opportunity to learn and work with Bob now, who I really could not think more highly of. And I know that's a sentiment that's shared widely across our industry and across business in general. This company is in excellent hands, and I have amazing colleagues.
Great. Well, that's a great place to end, Dana. Thank you so much for being here.
My pleasure.
Thanks, everybody.
Thanks for having me.