Walt Disney Company (The)

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Walt Disney Company's Fiscal First Quarter 2019 Financial Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session, and instructions will follow at that time. If anyone should require assistance during the conference, please press star, then zero, on your touch-tone telephone. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to introduce your host for today's conference, Mr. Lowell Singer, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin.

Thank you. Good afternoon and welcome to the Walt Disney Company's first quarter 2019 earnings call. Our press release was issued about 25 minutes ago and is available on our website at www.disney.com forward slash investors. Today's call is also being webcast and a transcript of the call will be available on our website. Joining me for today's call are Bob Iger, Disney's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Christine McCarthy, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Bob will lead off, followed by Christine, and then, of course, we'll be happy to take some of your questions. So with that, I'll turn the call over to Bob, and we'll get started.

Thanks, Lowell, and good afternoon. Before Christine talks about the quarter, I have just a few comments about what we're working on and what we're excited about. First, I'd like to congratulate our studio for its 17 Oscar nominations, seven of which went to Marvel's Black Panther, including an historic nomination for Best Picture. Together, Disney and 21st Century Fox received 37 nominations, an indication of the creative potential of the combined companies. As you know, DTC remains our number one priority. Our corporate reorganization was designed to support our DTC efforts while providing a greater degree of transparency into our investment and our progress in the space. We remain focused on the programming as well as the technology to drive the success of our DTC business, and we're thrilled with the continued growth of ESPN+. The very first UFC fight night under our new five-year rights deal led nearly 600,000 fans to sign up for the service. The fact that 49 million Americans, 15% of the entire population, watched ESPN content on linear TV that day and millions more engaged on other platforms, including ESPN+, speaks to the enduring power of live sports, the strength of the ESPN brand, and the value of the UFC rights we acquired. We expect the expansion of combat sports content on the streaming service to drive continued growth in the months ahead. ESPN+, now has 2 million paid subscriptions, double the number from just five months ago. ESPN Plus operates on BAMTECH's platform, which has proved to be reliably stable during peak live streaming consumption and easily handled the volume of more than half a million people signing up in a single 24-hour period. This same technology will power Disney Plus when it launches later this year. We have a number of great creative engines across our company, all of which are dedicating their talent, focus, and resources to develop and produce strong content for the Disney Plus platform. Most of the teams creating shows and movies for this service are the same innovators and storytellers driving the prolific success of Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm, operating under the same expectations of excellence. We look forward to leveraging National Geographic to provide even more unique content for Disney Plus. Presented with an overabundance of choice, consumers look to brands they know to sort through the options and find what they actually want. The DTC space is no different in that regard, and we're confident our iconic brands and franchises will allow us to effectively break through the competitive clutter and connect with consumers. We'll also use our brand to help subscribers quickly navigate the content on Disney+, creating an efficient interface that enhances their experience and their affinity for the service. We'll demonstrate the Disney Plus platform and showcase some of the original content we're creating for it at our Investor Day on April 11th. We'll also take that opportunity to provide detailed insight into our overall DTC business. The addition of content and management talent from 21st Century Fox will further enhance our DTC efforts and provide opportunities for growth across the company. Having already designed much of the integration process, we're prepared to start effectively combining our businesses as soon as we obtain regulatory approval from the last few remaining markets. We look forward to working with the tremendous teams at 21st Century Fox to create the world's premier global entertainment company. I'm now going to turn the call over to Christine, and then I'll be back to take your questions.