Disney revealing ESPN's financials is a key step in CEO Bob Iger's turnaround

Published Sat, Oct 21 20232:01 PM EDT

Disney 's (DIS) first-ever breakout of ESPN's financials is another key step in CEO Bob Iger's turnaround for the embattled entertainment giant, displaying a stable top line and plenty of room for growth. The ESPN numbers were part of a recast of Disney's results from the first nine months of its fiscal year 2023 in preparation for a new reporting structure. Effective in the fiscal fourth quarter, which is set to be released on Nov. 8, Disney will report as three separate segments: sports; entertainment, including non-sports streaming and media operations; and experiences, which includes parks and resorts, and consumer products. For the nine months ended July 1, ESPN delivered $12.56 billion in revenue, according to this week's 8K government filing from Disney. ESPN linear TV networks and ESPN+ streaming make up the bulk of Disney's new sports segment, which chalked up overall revenue of $13.2 billion from the three months ended Dec. 31, 2022, through July 1, 2023. The new structure largely accounts for breaking sports out of entertainment, which had recasted revenue of $31.11 billion in the first nine months of fiscal 2023. The experiences division, which was basically unchanged in Iger's segment overhaul, had $24.39 billion during the first three quarters of fiscal 2023. Growing losses in Disney's linear TV assets may compel the company to sell all or some of them. It's a portfolio, including ABC on the broadcast side and numerous cable channels. These assets "may not be core to Disney," Iger said in a July CNBC interview . Treating sports as its own division allows Iger to think about the ESPN channels and ESPN+ in a different way than the company's other linear networks and streaming properties. The CEO said Disney is open to strategic partners for ESPN that can help with distribution. Disney in August announced a deal with sports book Penn Entertainment to create ESPN Bet. DIS YTD mountain Disney YTD Bringing in new partners "will not be easy," Morgan Stanley said in a note this week. However, Disney's sports unit is "starting off on a more stable base than we had expected and should benefit from broadly rising engagement levels across both its live content and shoulder programming," the analysts explained. Morgan Stanley has an overweight (buy) rating on Disney and a price target of $105 per share. Goldman Sachs, meanwhile, lowered its Disney price target to $125 per share from $128 but maintained its buy rating on the stock. The analysts said in a Thursday note that the stock is at "the point of peak uncertainty" heading into its fiscal fourth-quarter results. The issues facing Disney, says Goldman, are ESPN's streaming path, a resolution of Hulu ownership with CNBC-parent Comcast , potential asset sales, and improved creative output. Bottom line Linear networks may be in secular decline as more households cut the cord and push to streaming. But the new sports disclosure from Disney proves that live sports have longevity and ESPN is more durable than what the market is crediting Disney. ESPN is clearly outperforming the rest of the traditional TV market, making it even more imperative that it seeks the right partnership with a deep-pocketed company — our dream scenario is Apple (AAPL) after the launch of Vision Pro — and launch its own direct-to-consumer offering and create the most value for Disney shareholders. We're also encouraged that Disney is on track to achieve the $5.5 billion cost savings target set earlier this year by Iger. We feel confident that the balance sheet is in good shape to buy Hulu and there is still excess capital to do a small dividend. We were initially worried about the debt on Disney's balance sheet but management has been aggressively paying it down, which puts the company on a more stable financial footing. We'll look for continued improvement when Disney's fiscal fourth-quarter earnings come out next month. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long DIS, AAPL. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.

The Disney+ website on a laptop in Brooklyn, New York, on July 18, 2022.

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