Coronavirus Will Sink Media Earnings: Can Streaming Save the Day?

Tim Baysinger and Sean Burch
·1 min read

As media companies prepare for a dour earnings season, streaming figures to be the lone area where anyone can claim a win. The outlook for the next round of earnings looks gloomy as the full brunt of the pandemic will be shown on the balance sheets. Top media companies Disney, Comcast and AT&T are all expected to see revenues drop from the year-ago quarter, or in Disney’s case, plummet “Tower of Terror”-style. That’s why despite the fact that the direct-to-consumer segment is still mostly a drag on profit — launching a new service isn’t cheap, with companies like Disney and WarnerMedia spending billions on content — executives will try to make streaming the main focus. Also Read: Hanks vs Theron vs Samberg: With Theaters Still Closed, Summer Movie Showdowns Shift to Streaming Disney+ is performing ahead of schedule. The streaming service, which launched in November, has amassed 54.5 million subscribers as of May 4, leapfrogging Hulu in subscribers and even challenging Amazon to be the No. 2 streaming service behind Netflix. Disney had projected to reach 60-90 million subscribers by 2024, the same time it also expects to turn a profit. AT&T finally launched its HBO Max streaming service during...

Read original story Coronavirus Will Sink Media Earnings: Can Streaming Save the Day? At TheWrap