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Disney's quarterly streaming losses

Data: Disney earnings reports; Chart: Simran Parwani/Axios

Disney's streaming losses have ballooned as the company has aggressively invested in taking on Netflix for streaming supremacy.

Why it matters: The streaming gold rush was built on the idea that short-term losses would turn into long-term profits, but that ideal looks less likely in the eyes of investors than it did two years ago. 

Disney set an ambitious target of reaching at least 230 million subscribers across its streaming services including Hulu and ESPN+, but Wall Street increasingly is not impressed by subscriber growth alone.

Driving the news: Disney rounds out another quarter of media earnings Wednesday, and investors will care the most about how Disney plans to actually make money from streaming and not just spend it. 

Disney's direct-to-consumer segment lost $887 million last quarter, the most since the quarter when it first launched Disney+ at the end of 2019.

Disney has said it expects losses to peak sometime next year and by 2024 start to become profitable. 

Disney's streaming losses have widened

Streaming segment lost $887 million last quarter.

Disney

Disney's quarterly streaming losses; Q1 2020 to Q1 2022

<p>Disney&#x27;s streaming losses have ballooned as the company has aggressively invested in taking on Netflix for streaming supremacy.</p>

Disney's streaming losses have widened

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