Skepticism Towards Disney's Streaming Profitability

Disney reported its first-ever profit in its direct-to-consumer (DTC) segment, but there are concerns about the accuracy and durability of these figures. The reported subscriber growth of 800,000 in the U.S. and Canada largely comes from a deal with Charter to give its pay TV subscribers access to Disney Plus with ads. However, most of these subscribers may not be activating their subscriptions, raising doubts about how many genuine new subscribers the DTC segment has gained. Without the Charter deal, the subscriber growth could be significantly lower, suggesting that the reported 19% increase might not reflect genuine market performance.