Disney earnings: The road ahead is all about TV, streaming

In After the Call, Yahoo Finance's Brad Smith and Seana Smith discuss what's next for Disney — particularly for its streaming and parks divisions — after the media giant reported first-quarter earnings.

Video transcript

BRAD SMITH: Seana, before we wrap, got to get your final take here.

SEANA SMITH: My final take, this it was a very, very strong earnings call from Iger, from McCarthy. I think the focus moving forward when we talk about the roadmap for Disney, it's going to be traditional TV business and streaming. What exactly that looks like. Because the company is saying that they do see a billion less in operating income in that division during the second quarter. ESPN accounting for half of that. But Iger, once again, reiterating the fact that, quote, "Eyes are wide open" when it comes to the slowing that we're seeing in the linear business.

The sports costs, we didn't even have time to get into that. But just in terms of what they are spending, it sounded like they're pretty optimistic about NBA rights going forward. But it's all about streaming and it's all about straddling that line with traditional TV business and what that will look like for Disney here on out.

BRAD SMITH: Answered three key questions for me here today. And one of them was on ESPN. They are not considering a spin off. Number two, they are considering potential content licensing. And number three was the restructuring that we anticipated in some of those cost reductions.

I think they really did, and I hate to keep using this, but they did thread the needle at the end of the day. And they answered a lot of key questions that the street did have. And so that's why we gave them the tapes that we did and the [INAUDIBLE] checks that we did earlier on.

SEANA SMITH: Yeah. And Brad, real quick, we haven't even talked about the parks. The fact that they're seeing such strong demand in the midst of a looming recession. Maybe we're already in a recession. People are facing higher prices in almost every aspect of their life, yet people are still taking their trips to Disney. That is just incredible.

BRAD SMITH: All right. We've heard some of the executives within the travel and leisure, the experience economy say that we're entering into a golden age of travel. We'll see what that means for Disney going forward in the future. That's it for us here on Yahoo Finance.

You've been watching After the Call. Brad Smith here with Seana Smith breaking down all things Disney and the magic or the tragic. Well, it's been mostly magic on the call here today we'll say. Thanks.