Walt Disney’s  theme parks and the movie ‘Zootopia 2’ helped the company beat revenue and earnings estimates for the holiday ‌quarter ended in December. The media and entertainment giant is expected to name a new chief executive to replace Bob Iger early this year.

According to a Reuters report yesterday from Los Angeles, the experiences unit, which includes Disney’s parks, cruises and consumer products, carried the December quarter, generating $10 billion in revenue and 72 percent of the company’s quarterly operating profit of nearly $5 billion.

Walt Disney ‌World, in particular, benefited from favourable comparisons to a year earlier, when Hurricane Milton had forced Orlando-based attractions to close.

The company’s overall revenue rose 5 percent to $26 billion for its fiscal first quarter ended December 27. That topped the consensus revenue forecast of $25.7 billion, according to analysts surveyed by LSEG. Disney reported income before taxes of $3.7 billion, besting ‍Wall Street’s projection of $3.5 billion.

Disney reaffirmed its full-year forecast of double-digit per-share earnings growth, compared with fiscal 2025. It estimates it will bring in $19 billion in cash from operations, and is ⁠on track to repurchase $7 billion in stock.

Meanwhile, an official media statement from Disney, accessed by Indianbroadcastingworld.com, quoted company CEO Bob Iger and CFO Hugh Johnston as saying that the company was focused on “the international growth opportunity” for the streaming services that were seeing “encouraging results from our investment in local content.”

Iger and Johnston also noted that Disney is rolling out numerous product enhancements to elevate the user experience on Disney+.

“Ongoing experimentation remains central to how we innovate, and we expect new ad tech capabilities such as our AI-powered planning tool and video generator to improve advertiser engagement,” they said, adding, “We’re also layering in additional ways to engage audiences by developing new vertical and shortform experiences, and we plan to introduce a curated slate of Sora-generated content on Disney+ following our recently announced licensing agreement with OpenAI.”

They continued, “together, these efforts are shaping a more personalized streaming experience and positioning us to deliver greater value to consumers.”

In a related development, American government regulators, according to a Reuters report, approved ESPN’s acquisition of NFL Network, linear rights to the NFL RedZone Channel and other league media assets in exchange for a 10 percent equity stake in ESPN, the NFL and ESPN announced late Saturday (Jan 31) night.

The blockbuster deal was formally announced last August pending reviews by the Justice Department and other non-US antitrust authorities, which are now complete.

“With the closing, we will begin integrating NFL employees into ESPN in the months ahead,” ESPN and the NFL said in a joint statement.