Disney+ Hotstar to stream new series ‘American Born Chinese’

Disney+ Hotstar will stream American Born Chinese, an action comedy television series based on the 2006 graphic novel of the same name by Gene Luen Yang, on 24 May.

The Walt Disney Co has said that it will be slashing its workforce by 7,000 as it saw its video streaming platform Disney+ lose paid subscribers by 1% in the October-December quarter to 161.8 million.

Disney+ Hotstar, which the service is known as in India and other Asian countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, saw subscribe count dip by 6% to 57.5 million from 61.3 million.

The average monthly revenue per paid subscriber for international Disney+ (excluding Disney+ Hotstar) decreased from $5.83 to $5.62 due to an unfavourable foreign exchange impact, the company had said in a statement. The average monthly revenue per paid subscriber for Disney+ Hotstar increased from $0.58 to $0.74 due to higher per-subscriber advertising revenue.

Bob Iger, who was reappointed chief executive of Disney in a surprise move last November, said the company is looking at strategic reorganization, where there will be three core business segments: Disney Entertainment, ESPN and Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products.

“These organizational changes will be implemented immediately, and we will begin reporting under the new business structure by the end of the fiscal year. This reorganization will result in a more cost-effective, coordinated, and streamlined approach to our operations. We are targeting $5.5 billion of cost savings across the company,” Iger had said during an earnings call adding that reductions to non-content costs will total roughly $2.5 billion, not adjusted for inflation. “$1 billion in savings is already underway..in general, the savings will come from reductions in SG&A (selling, general and administrative expenses) and other operating costs across the company. To help achieve this, we will be reducing our workforce by approximately 7,000 jobs. On the content side, we expect to deliver approximately $3 billion in savings over the next few years, excluding sports,” Iger had added.