The Walt Disney
DIS
recently unveiled the first look of its next cruise, Disney Wish, which is scheduled to set sail in 2022. The upcoming ship is the first of the three new ships to be added to the Disney Cruise Line through 2025.
Notably, the company released a short video on its Disney Parks YouTube channel to give the viewers some insight into the ship’s interiors.
The main hall is decked with a grand winding staircase and a statue of Cinderella, an iconic Disney princess. Further, the company aims to enhance guest experience by rendering an enchanted tone to the interiors along with elaborate decorations.
The Walt Disney Company Price and Consensus
Coronavirus-Led Disruptions Continue to Hurt Top Line
Global shutdown of theme parks to contain the spread of the virus has adversely impacted Disney’s Parks, Experiences & Products segment, which includes its theme parks, resorts and the Disney Cruise Line.
In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020, revenues from the Parks, Experiences and Products segment (17.5% of total revenues) slumped 61.2% year over year to $2.58 billion.
Additionally, this Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) company stated that its cruise line and most of Disneyland Resorts remained closed in the October-end quarter while its re-opened parks and resorts operated at a lower capacity, which has dented its performance in the quarter. Moreover, it expects the coronavirus-induced headwinds to continue to hurt the top line in the upcoming first-quarter fiscal 2021.
Growing Traction of Disney+ to Fend Off Pandemic Woes
Disney’s shares have gained 20.1% year to date compared with the Zacks
Media Conglomerates
industry’s growth of 17.7%.
Significant momentum in its online streaming service, Disney+, aids the company to offset declines in revenues due to the closure of theme parks amid the coronavirus outbreak. Its Direct-to-Consumer segment, which includes Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu, largely benefits from elevated demand for streaming services.
Moreover, earlier this month, the company revealed that its portfolio of video streaming services hosted more than 137 million paid subscribers globally. Notably, as of Dec 2, Disney+ had 86.8 million subscribers, reflecting strong growth since its launch in November 2019. Also, ESPN+ had 11.5 million subscribers while Hulu had 38.8 million.
Further, the company stated that it expects its streaming services to reach 300-350 million total subscriptions by fiscal 2024. The positive outlook is mainly driven by the increase in new content across its portfolio, with Disney+ set to release more than 100 titles per year.
Also, it plans to update Disney+ to include Star, Disney’s new general entertainment content brand, from Feb 23, 2021, in selected markets outside the United States. The company will launch Star+, a separate streaming service in Latin America in June 2021.
Additionally, the company benefits from its agreement with
Comcast
CMCSA
to introduce Disney+ and ESPN+ services in Comcast X1 set-top boxes and Flex platforms in first-quarter 2021, with Hulu already available on these platforms since spring 2020.
Moreover, the recent measures undertaken by the company help it strengthen its footprint in the online streaming space, which is dominated by top players such as
Netflix
NFLX
and
Amazon
’s
AMZN
Prime Video.
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