Disney earnings: What to expect from Bob Iger’s plan

Yahoo Finance Live anchors discuss the expectations for Disney earnings following the return of CEO Bob Iger.

Video Transcript

[AUDIO LOGO]

BRAD SMITH: Let's get to the second thing that you need to know this morning. Disney set to report quarterly results after the bell today. Investors anxiously await greater clarity from CEO Bob Iger. This is his first earnings report since his return. He came back like Michael Jordan wearing the 45. We're going to be closely monitoring this call this evening here. And perhaps, we'll get a little bit more on the color around how he's going to be shifting the operations for Disney now versus what we saw with Bob Chapek, and now for a brand and a company that is still facing a major activist campaign against those--

BRIAN SOZZI: I think Big Bob better come back with the 2B, as in $2 billion in cost cuts, because I think the market really wants to see aggressive cost cuts from Bob Iger out of the gate. Does not want to hear him teasing anything in the back half of the year. They want a clear strategy for him because this is a company the stock price has massively relatively outperformed.

Hence, that's why you're seeing the activist campaign and Nelson Peltz trying to get on this board and his various people putting out tweets on Twitter to garner support for him getting on that Disney board. And I will say this again, he's got a strong case. But Bob Iger has to come out here swinging, and we'll see what he's got.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah, and strategically, they want to know about the direct-to-consumer business. What is the strategy there? What is the profitability pathway look like there? How are they going to get net new subscribers onto growth there? Also, you know, investors want to hear Bob Iger talk about Hulu, talk about ESPN. What are the future plans for those as well?

And I imagine there are also going to be some questions about the parks in a recessionary environment, or at the very least, a slowing growth environment. You're talking about expensive parks, right? They've been raising the prices for the parks. If people are pushing back against the price of a Chipotle burrito, what are they going to do when it comes to the price of taking your family to Disney World or Disneyland?

BRIAN SOZZI: And that is really hurting customer perception. I tweeted out a poll-- a chart earlier in the week from Evercore ISI, and you could see the net promoter score, which matches customer satisfaction with Disney parks. That is on the downtrend. And it comes at a time where they have pushed through higher prices increases, Julie.

BRAD SMITH: Right. And perhaps some of that customer satisfaction is because of the fact that they have to pay more not just to get into that experience for an entire family and the thousands of dollars that that could rack up to over several days, but then once you're in the park, to try and make sure that you're taking advantage of that full amount of time. You're buying in to get the pass to get you to the front of the line, only to perhaps still be sitting in a Fast Pass line at the end of the day.

BRIAN SOZZI: You're looking at over 10Gs to go to Disney.

BRAD SMITH: Right.

BRIAN SOZZI: At a bare minimum, to have a good time at Disney, probably, what, 10Gs--

BRAD SMITH: To get the turkey leg, all in, yeah.

BRIAN SOZZI: --just to have reasonable time here.

JULIE HYMAN: I tried not to add it all up--

BRIAN SOZZI: That's a car! That's a car! Car, go shake the hands of Mickey and Minnie Mouse. I'm going with car.

JULIE HYMAN: I don't know about--

BRAD SMITH: I still have the autograph from Mickey, though.

JULIE HYMAN: Now I feel like I have to go back and retroactively do the math for my Disney trip a couple of years ago--

BRIAN SOZZI: Do it, follow up tomorrow.

JULIE HYMAN: --because I-- usually, when I do these trips, I just sort of like-- you just don't-- I don't add everything up. I just sort of--

BRIAN SOZZI: Well, you could have another car, Julie.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah.

BRAD SMITH: I mean, and--

[LAUGHTER]

JULIE HYMAN: I'm good.

BRAD SMITH: Well--

JULIE HYMAN: Two cars is good.

BRAD SMITH: Yeah. Well, just one other thing that we're going to be watching later on today is, to your point, Julie, on the streaming side of the business, there have been consistent media trends surveyed. Deloitte puts their media trends survey out every year. And typically, the average household, even in good times, has about four to five streaming services.

It'll be interesting to see if that is either helping Disney, as that number starts to tick down to about three to four, if people are just opting to say, we're just going to bundle it all together. Or if they're saying, OK, we're only going to choose one Disney platform, we're going to choose one HBO-- of course, the only HBO platform, one Netflix perhaps. And so all of that in mind, that could be interesting to get a little bit more insight on, of course.

BRIAN SOZZI: Also curious on what Bob Iger says about, if anything, just the cadence of key movie releases. There continues to be this ongoing debate. Should a lot of these key movies be released on streaming first and then the movie theater? And to that end, you're going to want to keep an eye on shares of AMC.

BRAD SMITH: Absolutely. Well, stick around tonight, 5:30, for a vibe check. Yahoo Finance's Seana Smith and I will be recapping Disney's earnings call and breaking down everything you need to know. This is my first time sitting in--

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah, I've never seen the Seana cartoon.

BRIAN SOZZI: The Seana cartoon.

JULIE HYMAN: I like it.

BRIAN SOZZI: Wow, that is amazing.

BRAD SMITH: Looks good. All right.