Disputes, Employee Misconduct Rattle Centerview’s Silicon Valley DreamsRead more

Disney's Burbank studio. Photo by Bloomberg

Disney’s Hulu Deserves More Respect

Photo: Disney's Burbank studio. Photo by Bloomberg

Disney’s quarterly earnings tonight made clear that the company’s flagship streaming service Disney+ is getting most of its growth out of cut-priced Asian markets such as India. That’s a long term problem for the entertainment giant, which has to figure out a way to get Disney+ growing more strongly in richer, more lucrative markets, most obviously the U.S. But there was some good news for Disney on the streaming front—Hulu.

If these results don’t get Hulu more respect, nothing will. Not only does Hulu appear to have more subscribers in the U.S. than Disney+ (based on our reporting about Disney+ and Disney’s Hulu disclosures), but Hulu’s subscribers are paying more than twice as much money for the service. Even better, Disney revealed Hulu was profitable in the most recent quarter, which for the streaming market is a major achievement. The profit helped Disney’s streaming division halve its operating loss in the quarter, even as it ramps up investment in Disney+.

Access on the go
View stories on our mobile app and tune into our weekly podcast.
Join live video Q&A’s
Deep-dive into topics like startups and autonomous vehicles with our top reporters and other executives.
Enjoy a clutter-free experience
Read without any banner ads.
From left, a Google TPU, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan and Google Cloud chief Thomas Kurian. Photos via Getty, Google and YouTube.
Exclusive google semiconductors
To Reduce AI Costs, Google Wants to Ditch Broadcom as Its TPU Server Chip Supplier
Google executives have extensively discussed dropping Broadcom as a supplier of artificial intelligence chips as early as 2027, according to a person with direct knowledge of the effort.
From left to right: Blair Effron, Robert Pruzan and David Handler. Photos by Getty; Tidal Partners.
Exclusive Finance
Disputes, Employee Misconduct Rattle Centerview’s Silicon Valley Dreams
The San Francisco Bay Area–based bankers at Centerview Partners, the investment bank that advised Silicon Valley Bank’s owner and Credit Suisse through recent turmoil, got two doses of bad news last week.
Art by Clark Miller
Exclusive startups entertainment
MasterClass Takes a Crash Course in Frugality
MasterClass had a problem with the shoot featuring its latest star instructor, Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger.
Photos via Eiso Kant (left) and YouTube/VMWare Tanzu (right)
AI Agenda startups ai
How GitHub Copilot’s Co-Creator Raised $126 Million to Compete with His Former Employer
Recent interest in artificial intelligence has focused on large-language models that aim to do everything from writing Shakespearean poetry to solving math riddles.
If AI researchers can meet Nat Friedman's Vesuvius Challenge, “It’ll be the first time we’ve read handwriting that hasn’t been seen in 2,000 years.” Art by Clark Miller
The AI Age culture ai
Nat Versus the Volcano: Can an AI Investor Solve an Ancient Mystery from the Ashes of Vesuvius?
Long before men’s daily thoughts about ancient Rome became a TikTok meme , former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman’s mind was regularly turning toward the Roman Empire.
Art by Clark Miller
The Big Read policy
Europe Has Figured Out How to Tame Big Tech. Can the U.S. Learn Its Tricks?
Late last month in Belgium, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) had a pressing question for Paul Tang, a Dutch politician and member of the European Parliament.