Disney sells 23.7M TV shows, 2M movies via iTunes

[AppleInsider]

Walt Disney, which on Tuesday said second quarter profits rose 27 percent, also offered analysts and members of the media an update on its iTunes sales totals during a conference call.

For the quarter ended March 31, the entertainment conglomerate earned $931 million, or 44 cents a share, up from the $733 million, or 37 cents a share, a year earlier.

During a conference call, chief executive Robert Iger refused to break out a measure of the company's digital revenue, garnered from its Web sites and sales of movies from Apple's iTunes.

Iger, however, did offer an update on the number of digital media titles Disney sold through the iTunes store. Thus far, he said, iTunes and Disney have combined to sell around 23.7 million TV episodes and 2 million movies.

Iger added that Disney viewers have also watched nearly 92 million ad-supported TV episodes via the ABC.com Web site and 91 million shows on the Disney Channel Web site.

One of the last times Disney provided an update on iTunes movie sales was on Nov. 9, when it announced sales of approximately 500,000 films through the Apple download service -- a sales rate of approximately 62,500 movies each week, or just shy of 9,000 per day.

The latest totals indicate that the rate at which Disney is selling movies through iTunes has not changed. The additional 1.5 million downloads over the intervening 6 months continues to break down to 250,000 movie downloads per month, or 62,500 movies each week (just shy of 9,000 per day).

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[g5man]

Once we add a few more studios with better movie selection and quality, AppleTV will sell as quickly as the iPods.

If we add 4 more studios and increase selling to 50,000 a day, we are looking 18 million movies a year totaling $216 million in revenue for Apple. Profits are small on this, but Apple will make money on the computers, iPhones, iPods, and AppleTV's.

We just keep adding to our revenue stream every quarter.

[BRussell]

Hmm, 23.7 million purchased TV episodes through iTunes, but 92 million "free" episodes with ads viewed through ABC.com and 91 million through the Disney Channel web site. Looks like consumers have made their choice.

[iMat]

"Only viewers within the United States can watch these full lenght episodes"

So, there's really not much of a choice here in Europe...

What do I mean?

Increasing the sales figures for Disney in the US can be made through ABC.com with commercial, but to increase them outside the US they really might have to consider iTunes as a good distribution platform

[g5man]

Originally Posted by BRussell

Hmm, 23.7 million purchased TV episodes through iTunes, but 92 million "free" episodes with ads viewed through ABC.com and 91 million through the Disney Channel web site. Looks like consumers have made their choice.

except that prior to iTunes they were not selling 23.7 million episodes. Content is good for Apple and good for expanding Disney's distribution. They have a new revenue stream that was not there a year ago.

As AppleTV is better managed with the internet you will see that number increase significantly. It will be too easy to simply go to AppleTV and buy the episode you just missed, instead of sitting at your computer and typing in abc.com and watching it on a small screen.

[mgkwho]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

The latest totals indicate that the rate at which Disney is selling movies through iTunes has not change.

You mean has not changed.

-=|Mgkwho

[Flounder]

Originally Posted by BRussell

Hmm, 23.7 million purchased TV episodes through iTunes, but 92 million "free" episodes with ads viewed through ABC.com and 91 million through the Disney Channel web site. Looks like consumers have made their choice.

But there's nothing wrong with 23.7 million. Seems like a perfectly viable niche to me. Industry dominating isn't needed for success.

[kbsbeme]

"For the quarter ended March 31"

I'm confused. Are the iTunes numbers for the 3 months of the quarter being reported, or total sales from inception? If for the quater, your sales rates are inocrrect.

[DaveGee]

Originally Posted by kbsbeme

"For the quarter ended March 31"

I'm confused. Are the iTunes numbers for the 3 months of the quarter being reported, or total sales from inception? If for the quater, your sales rates are inocrrect.

"Iger, however, did offer an update on the number of digital media titles Disney sold through the iTunes store. Thus far, he said, iTunes and Disney have combined to sell around 23.7 million TV episodes and 2 million movies."

Since Iger was quoted as saying '...thus far...' it would be assumed that he was talking about sales since inception.. Had he been talking about something else he would have said 'thus far this year' or 'thus far this half' or 'thus far this quarter' etc etc etc. They have to be pretty precise when talking in public otherwise lawyers would be all of the company for misguiding investors.

D

[Porchland]

Originally Posted by BRussell

Hmm, 23.7 million purchased TV episodes through iTunes, but 92 million "free" episodes with ads viewed through ABC.com and 91 million through the Disney Channel web site. Looks like consumers have made their choice.

Yeah, they chose both. If you glob the the ABC and Disney websites and iTunes together, you get a market of 206.7 million episode downloads. At 23.7 million downloads for iTunes, that's 11.4 percent of the market.

Disney's earnings from iTunes downloads is probably double the earnings from a free, ad-supported website viewing. There's no way ABC is getting $.40 per viewing from its advertisers on the web sites, and it is likely getting at least that much on iTunes downloads.

[MacTel]

Originally Posted by BRussell

Hmm, 23.7 million purchased TV episodes through iTunes, but 92 million "free" episodes with ads viewed through ABC.com and 91 million through the Disney Channel web site. Looks like consumers have made their choice.

Or the majority have either watched the episodes at their scheduled showing, TIVO'd them, or used the old fashioned VCR to record and view them. I'd guess that number is in the billions.

[trevorlsciact]

When I read the title, I thought it said 2 movies. Haha!

[Scarpad]

Originally Posted by g5man

Once we add a few more studios with better movie selection and quality, AppleTV will sell as quickly as the iPods.

If we add 4 more studios and increase selling to 50,000 a day, we are looking 18 million movies a year totaling $216 million in revenue for Apple. Profits are small on this, but Apple will make money on the computers, iPhones, iPods, and AppleTV's.

We just keep adding to our revenue stream every quarter.

I bought two ATV's I love them, I was searching for a HT Interface that was clean and elegant and this is it. I've already downgraded my Cable to a very basic Direct TV account package thru my Teleco costing me about $30, I think ATV can get me to a place eventually where I'm just paying for the content I want to watch.

[bevos]

Association with Apple is why Disney jumped from 43rd (2006) to 8th (2007) as the most innovative company. www.businessweek.com plus 25% ratio 23.7/92 is not bad efford as people are paying.

[lantzn]

Originally Posted by BRussell

Hmm, 23.7 million purchased TV episodes through iTunes, but 92 million "free" episodes with ads viewed through ABC.com and 91 million through the Disney Channel web site. Looks like consumers have made their choice.

You're right it looks like roughly 10% of these folks choose not to watch ads. I imagine more and more people will go this route. I hate commercials, even having to fast forward through them using my Tivo. I look forward to the day when my Tivo goes away and iTunes/AppleTV take over.

[dallasmay]

Guys do you know what that means?

That means that Apple is selling more movies via iTunes in a month than Blu-Ray and HD-DVD have sold in a year!!

Thats cool. GO AAPL!