Alexia Quadrani: Operator, next question, please.
Operator: Our next question will come from John Hodulik with UBS. You may now go ahead.
John Hodulik: Great, thanks. Maybe first, a follow up to Ben’s question. Is there an opportunity for ESPN to add local sports rights, given what’s happening to the RSN model, or potentially add sports rights to be distributed outside the US? That’s the first question. And then second question is, Warner Brothers basically made some news recently by licensing some of their — what would be considered some of their tentpole content, their DC Universe to Netflix. Is that something you think that Disney can do or can lean into, more — at least more of that — so than you’re doing now without diluting the Disney brand or the Disney+ growth prospects? Thanks.
Robert Iger: Good questions, John. Thank you. We’ve actually been licensing content to Netflix and are going to continue to. We’re actually in discussion with them now about some opportunities, but I wouldn’t expect that we will license our core brands to them. Those are real, obviously, competitive advantages for us and differentiators, Disney Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, for instance, all doing very, very well on our platform, and I don’t see why, just basically to chase bucks we should do that when they are really, really important building blocks to the current and future of our streaming business. Regarding local sports, the technology that we will have for ESPN DTC will give us the ability to provide local sports in a pretty robust way, basically what the RSNs are doing.
But we’re not really aiming to do so by taking on significant risk. So if we can find the right kind of business arrangements and partnerships, I think we’ll look very seriously at providing local sports as part of that platform. But again, not if it results in us taking on too much risk.
Alexia Quadrani: All right. Thank you. Operator, we have time for one more question.
Operator: Our final question Phil Cusick with J. P. Morgan. You may now go ahead.
Philip Cusick: Hi, guys. Thank you. Bob. first follow up on ESPN, clearly a big priority. Can you give us some update on types of potential ESPN partners and what the hurdles might be to get those partnerships announced? And then second, maybe if you could dig into the recent trends of Parks. There’s been some noise on pricing, but what have you seen from consumer demand, both in Orlando and around the country? And how do you think that Walt Disney World is doing versus the overall Orlando market? Thanks very much. A – Robert Iger The first question.
Alexia Quadrani: First question was on the conversation [Multiple Speakers] A – Robert Iger Oh, thank you. Sorry. Sorry, Phil, I was kind — I was listening to your second question. I forgot your first one. Senior moment. What basically we’ve been saying and what we’ve been exploring is that, as we prepare to take ESPN in the direct-to-consumer direction, we believe that we have opportunities to strengthen our hand with entities that either provide us with technology, marketing support, for instance, or companies or entities, I should say, that can provide us with more content. We feel we have an excellent hand, by the way, and could do it without that. But why not explore strengthening our hand? And so, since I noted that we were interested in this back in July, we’ve engaged with a number of different entities.
I can say that there’s significant interest out there. There are obviously complexities to it, but not complexities that were — not hurdles that are so high that we can’t jump over them. And we’re going to continue to explore it. And I would imagine we’ll have more to say about this in the coming months. But I don’t want to say much more right now. Except again, there’s serious interest out there, and I think there’s a path or path to deals, but we’re working through them. And obviously, as soon as they’re completed, we’ll let everybody know. You want to take the consumer demand question?
Kevin Lansberry: Yep. So with respect to the Parks, and I think we’ve talked about it in our prepared remarks with respect to Walt Disney World, and just we’re lapping the 50th there. So we’re going to continue to have a little bit of that lapping effect that will continue for a little bit as we go through Q1. But as I look out at the other domestic businesses, especially Disneyland continues to look exceptionally strong, as does Disney Cruise Line. So bookings at all of those continue to be very, very strong going forward. So domestically, we feel good and internationally we feel pretty good. So we’re not really seeing anything in terms of an economic hangover.
Phil Cusick: Thanks, Kevin. Thanks, Bob.
Alexia Quadrani: Okay, thanks for the question and. I want to thank everyone for joining us today. Note that a reconciliation of our non-GAAP measures that were referred to on this call to the equivalent GAAP measures can be found on our Investor Relations website. Let me also remind you that certain statements on this call, including financial estimates or statements about our plans, guidance or expectations, and other statements that are not historical in nature may constitute forward-looking statements under the securities laws. We make these statements on the basis of our views and assumptions regarding future events and business performance. At the time we make them. And we do not undertake any obligation to update these statements.
Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties and actual results may differ materially from the results expressed or implied in light of a variety of factors. These factors include, among others, economic or industry conditions, competition and execution risks, including in connection with our business plans, organizational structure and operating changes, cost savings, future financial performance, including expectations and drivers of growth and our DTC content and how it has made available on our platforms, subscriber, advertising and revenue growth and profitability. In particular, our expectations regarding DTC profitability are built on certain assumptions around subscriber additions based on the availability and attractiveness of our future content, which is subject to additional risks related to recent work stoppages, return expectations, the financial impact of Disney+ ad tier and price increases, our ability to quickly execute on cost rationalization, while preserving revenue and macroeconomic conditions.
