Category: Broadcast

According to Market Research Intellect, the global Commercial Geo Satellite Broadband market under the Aerospace and Defense category is expected to register notable growth from 2025 to 2032. Key drivers such as advancing technologies, changing consumer behavior, and evolving market dynamics are poised to shape the trajectory of this market throughout the forecast period.

The commercial GEO satellite broadband market is witnessing robust growth due to the rising demand for high-speed internet connectivity in remote and underserved regions. As global digital transformation accelerates, industries such as aviation, maritime, government, and enterprise sectors are increasingly relying on satellite broadband for consistent and wide-area communication. GEO satellites offer broad coverage and high data capacity, making them suitable for large-scale commercial applications. The expansion of smart infrastructure, growing use of cloud-based services, and increased video streaming demands are also fueling market growth. Furthermore, government initiatives to bridge the digital divide and the ongoing development of advanced high-throughput satellites (HTS) are enhancing service capabilities. This market is set to grow steadily as businesses prioritize uninterrupted connectivity and data-driven operations across diverse geographies.

Several key drivers are fueling the growth of the commercial GEO satellite broadband market. A major factor is the increasing demand for broadband services in rural and remote areas where traditional terrestrial networks are either limited or non-existent. GEO satellites, with their wide coverage and high capacity, are ideal for delivering consistent internet connectivity in these regions. Another driver is the rising need for reliable communication networks across various commercial sectors such as oil and gas, aviation, maritime, and emergency services, where ground infrastructure is often inadequate. The surge in bandwidth-intensive applications-including video conferencing, streaming, and cloud computing-is further propelling the demand for high-speed satellite internet. Technological advancements in satellite design, such as HTS and software-defined payloads, are enhancing performance and reducing latency. Additionally, supportive government policies and funding for broadband expansion initiatives are playing a crucial role. These factors collectively contribute to the strong momentum in the GEO satellite broadband market.

Global Commercial Geo satellite broadband market driver – Rising technological advancements and innovation
The global Commercial Geo Satellite Broadband market is being significantly propelled by rapid technological advancements and continuous innovation across product lines. As industries increasingly demand higher efficiency, better performance, and more environmentally sustainable solutions, manufacturers are investing heavily in R&D. These innovations lead to enhanced functionalities, cost efficiencies, and better integration with smart systems or digital platforms. For instance, the integration of IoT, AI, or automation capabilities in Commercial Geo Satellite Broadband systems enhances their appeal across sectors such as healthcare, automotive, and energy. Furthermore, companies that offer customizable and scalable solutions are gaining a competitive edge, as they cater to niche requirements while ensuring operational efficiency. This technological momentum not only fuels product adoption in established economies but also accelerates penetration into emerging markets where infrastructure and industrial needs are evolving rapidly. Consequently, technological progress remains a critical pillar supporting market expansion globally.

Global Commercial Geo satellite broadband market restraint – High initial investment and operational costs
One of the primary constraints impacting the growth of the global Commercial Geo Satellite Broadband market is the high upfront capital required for deployment, installation, and maintenance. For many small and medium enterprises, the cost barrier significantly limits access to advanced Commercial Geo Satellite Broadband solutions. Additionally, operational costs-especially in cases where energy consumption, skilled labor, or regular maintenance is involved-can further burden organizations seeking to upgrade or modernize their systems. This issue is more pronounced in developing regions, where budget allocations for technological upgrades are limited. Even when long-term benefits such as efficiency gains and regulatory compliance are evident, the steep initial expenditure can delay investment decisions. Moreover, fluctuations in raw material prices and logistical costs add another layer of financial pressure, especially in the post-pandemic economic recovery phase. These financial constraints collectively dampen adoption rates and restrict the scalability of the Commercial Geo Satellite Broadband market in cost-sensitive segments.

Global Commercial Geo satellite broadband market opportunity – Expansion in emerging economies
Emerging economies present a significant growth opportunity for the global Commercial Geo Satellite Broadband market due to rising industrialization, urbanization, and increasing government support for modernization initiatives. Countries across Asia-Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa are witnessing infrastructure development and a growing focus on energy efficiency, healthcare improvements, and technological adoption. These factors create a conducive environment for Commercial Geo Satellite Broadband solution providers to expand their market reach. Moreover, the increasing availability of affordable financing options, growing public-private partnerships, and awareness campaigns are driving adoption across sectors such as healthcare, manufacturing, automotive, and utilities. As these regions continue to build capacity and improve digital connectivity, the demand for reliable, scalable, and sustainable Commercial Geo Satellite Broadband systems is likely to surge. Companies that localize their offerings and create region-specific strategies-such as cost-effective product variants or training and support-can tap into these fast-growing markets and build a strong competitive presence.

Global Commercial Geo satellite broadband market trend – Integration of sustainability and green technologies
A prominent trend shaping the global Commercial Geo Satellite Broadband market is the increasing emphasis on sustainability and the integration of green technologies. Governments and industries alike are setting aggressive targets for carbon neutrality and environmental responsibility, prompting manufacturers to align their products and operations with eco-friendly standards. This includes the use of recyclable materials, energy-efficient components, and low-emission manufacturing processes in Commercial Geo Satellite Broadband production. Furthermore, end-users are showing a clear preference for solutions that contribute to environmental goals without compromising on performance. Certifications and compliance with international sustainability standards also enhance marketability and foster customer trust. In sectors such as construction, energy, and transportation, the incorporation of green design principles in Commercial Geo Satellite Broadband products can even offer tax benefits or subsidies. As environmental consciousness continues to grow among stakeholders, this trend is expected to drive innovation and create a competitive edge for companies investing in sustainable development within the Commercial Geo Satellite Broadband market. openPR 

With the 2028 Olympic Games quickly approaching, Hollywood Park officials on Tuesday announced plans to construct a movie studio and production facility that they expect to house the International Broadcast Center when the event arrives.

“The vision for Hollywood Park ha always been to build a city within a city combining media, entertainment and technology that will transform the greater Los Angeles area,” said developer and Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke in a statement. “We are thrilled to expand the role we will play in the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games by hosting the International Broadcast Center and the global media outlets who will call it home during that summer. Beyond 2028, Hollywood Park Studio will be open to welcome a new industry to our live, work, play destination and bring a little bit of Hollywood to Hollywood Park.”

Officials said that the first phase of the Hollywood Park Studios project would cover 12 acres, including five 18,000-square-foot sound stages. Two of those will be able to open into a single 36,000-square-foot space. Additionally, there will be a three-story, 80,000-square-foot office building and a parking structure that can accommodate more than 1,000 cars. The parking structure will also include a 20-foot-high bay on its ground level for up to 60 movie production trailers.

“LA28 is proud to be the inaugural tenant of this new state-of-the-art studio in the heart of Inglewood, a key venue city for the 2028 Games,” said a statement from LA28 CEo Reynold Hoover. “The International Broadcast Center will serve as one of our first fully operational facilities for the Games, capturing every inspiring moment of the LA28 Games.”

Ultimately, the project could include up to 20 stages and an additional 200,000 square feet of office space. CBS News

Walt Disney said on Tuesday its new streaming service would be named ESPN and cost $29.99 per month, as the media company aims to tap sports fans who have never subscribed to traditional television.

The new service, which is set for launch this fall, will provide access to ESPN networks, including professional and college football and basketball games.

“We are providing everything ESPN has to offer directly to fans and all in one place,” ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro said.

Media companies, including Paramount Global, Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) and Disney, are doubling down on sports content to curb subscriber churn, boost engagement and bolster their ad-supported tiers in a competitive market.

The announcement comes a day after Fox Corp (NASDAQ:FOXA) said its new subscription-based streaming service would be called “Fox One” and was set to launch before the fall American football season.

Disney said subscribers would be given an option to bundle ESPN with Disney+ and Hulu streaming services at $35.99 per month, with a promotional monthly price of $29.99 for the first year.

The upcoming ESPN streaming service could be a bargain for people who still subscribe to “$100 cable- or internet-delivered live TV” packages to access ESPN channels, said Paul Verna, vice president of content at Emarketer.

“ESPN won’t offer anything close to the full suite of sports programming that most live TV packages provide, so true sports fans might feel torn between signing up for the new service or sticking with broader pay TV bundles,” he added.

In 2024, Disney’s ESPN, Comcast-owned NBCUniversal and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) clinched the rights to carry National Basketball Association games in an 11-year deal valued at $77 billion. Such deals underscore the value of live sports in attracting new subscribers and advertisers.

Disney, Fox and Warner Bros Discovery earlier this year abandoned plans to launch their live sports joint venture Venu Sports after it ran into substantial legal opposition. It was meant to attract sports fans who either canceled or never subscribed to cable TV. Investing

Satellite communication services are unlikely to pose threat to telecom operators’ home broadband and mobile businesses due to their higher price points and inconsistent speeds, analysts have said.

Satcom players are unlikely to become mainstream in India in the medium term, they said, citing global trends. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released the satcom spectrum recommendations on May 9.

The primary constraints to large-scale broadband adoption in India — inadequate last-mile fibre and costly right of way (RoW) — are now being addressed through the 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) services rolled out by Airtel and Reliance Jio, Axis Capital said in a note.

“With the fibre constraints largely addressed by FWA, and considering the premium pricing and costly Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) of satcom for what is essentially high-speed data connectivity, we do not expect satellite-based broadband services to become mainstream in India in the medium term, as has been the case globally,” the note, reviewed by Moneycontrol, said.

India’s broadband subscriber base, including fixed broadband and 5G-based FWA, stood at 46.4 million as of December.

Elon Musk’s Starlink had just over 5.4 million subscribers globally as of March 2025.

According to TRAI, telecom operators’ capacity in the mid-band spectrum (3300 MHz) can reach approximately 170 Tbps or more, compared to just 0.6–3 Tbps for satcom services.

“…telcos are likely to allocate the majority of this capacity to mobile services, and data demand on FWA — given its broadband-like usage — is expected to be significantly higher than that for mobile. However, this can be offset by enhancing capacity using millimetre wave spectrum,” the brokerage said.

Terrestrial networks deliver faster broadband speeds, as satcom requires the launch of additional satellite constellations, analysts said.

Increasing capacity at a location is not feasible with satcom, since satellite capacity is spread across a wide area.

‘Complementary, not competitive service’
Axis Capital pegged the average terminal cost for satcom at Rs 30,000, which must be purchased by the user, compared to a refundable security deposit of Rs 2,000–2,500 for FWA connections.

“The average satcom plan is about twice as expensive as a standard broadband plan in countries where the service is available,” the brokerage said.

TRAI chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti, too, said the regulator expects satcom to remain a complementary service to terrestrial FWA in the near to medium term rather than a competitor. He rejected claims that satcom would compete directly with terrestrial mobile networks.

This expectation stems from satcom’s limited capacity, slower ability to scale, higher pricing, and costly hardware.

“A city like Delhi has around 5 million broadband connections, whereas a single satellite constellation can support only about 20,000 users,” Lahoti said. “This disparity will continue for at least the next five years. Satellite services will remain complementary —not competitive — to terrestrial networks.”

Some industry observers and satellite players said TRAI’s proposed additional spectrum charges for urban areas could make satcom unaffordable in India’s most lucrative telecom markets.

A senior executive with a satellite service provider said the recommendation favours mobile broadband providers, granting them a strategic advantage over satellite players in urban areas.

“While satellite has been primarily used globally to offer connectivity in rural and deep rural areas where deployment of any kind of fixed infrastructure is not commercially viable, the higher spectrum charges, especially in urban areas, do put the satellite providers on a back foot,” Ashwinder Sethi, partner at Analysys Mason, told Moneycontrol.

“We believe 5G FWA will be the focus of mobile operators in sub-urban and rural areas, while satellite providers will focus on rural and deep rural areas, as satellite has limited capacity at the moment regarding a number of subscribers that can be supported,” Sethi said.

While 5G FWA will be the focus of mobile operators in sub-urban and rural areas, satellite providers will look at “rural and deep rural areas”, as at the moment, satellite capacity to support subscribers is limited, Sethi said.

According to an analysis by Analysys Mason, the proposed spectrum charges for satellite services at 4 percent of AGR are on the higher side when compared to mobile services, where the DoT does not levy any SUC for 5G spectrum bought in the 3.5GHz and 26GHz bands. This implies that satellite service providers will pay spectrum charges of 4 percent of AGR, while the mobile (including FWA) service providers will be charged at less than 1.5 percent on a blended basis (across different spectrum bands).

“Furthermore, the additional charge of Rs 500 per annum per subscriber in urban areas for NGSO-based FSS (fixed satellite service), takes the spectrum charges even higher for satellite providers,” Sethi said.

Additional spectrum charges would make satellite broadband unaffordable and non-competitive in urban markets, giving mobile broadband players a clear edge in India’s most profitable telecom zones.

TRAI recommended that satellite communication companies — Starlink, Eutelsat-OneWeb, and the Jio-SES joint venture — pay 4 percent of their Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) as spectrum usage charges, aligning with the current framework for VSAT providers.

Following the recommendations, the department of telecommunications (DoT) has begun finalising the satellite spectrum allocation rules, which would be issued under the new Telecommunications Act, sources said. A draft seeking feedback would also be released soon.

Industry said the rules would allow administrative allocation of satellite spectrum. However, pricing decisions will require cabinet approval. The Digital Communications Commission (DCC), the DoT’s top decision-making body, will review TRAI’s proposals before presenting them to the cabinet for pricing approval, they said. MoneyControl

India’s digital infrastructure has yet to overcome the hurdles of accessibility for its remote and differently-abled communities, before digital access as a fundamental right can be exercised in reality, policy experts noted

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court, in a landmark judgement, stated that right to digital access is a fundamental right under the right to life and liberty.While this is not the first time that the apex court has acknowledged the need for digital access, Apar Gupta, Founder-Director of the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), said this is the first time that digital access has been recognised beyond just internet access — as a constitutional right.

“Earlier, recognition for digital access has been particularly limited to access to the internet itself, for instance, the Anuradha Bhasin judgment concerning the legality of an indefinite internet shutdown,” said Gupta.

The affordability question
Going forward, Gupta advised policy-makers to approach the challenge of universal digital access as an initiative through paper-based process, especially considering declining tele-connectivity rates and lower mobile data and wired connections as per the telecom regulatory authority’s (TRAI) data.

“Price will also be an issue since we are very far from universal connectivity. Connectivity is not available for each person even in metropolitan cities in India,” said Gupta.

To Gupta’s point, Professor Amit Prakash, Head of Digital Humanities and Societal Systems at IIIT-Bangalore told businessline how even in the tech-hub of India, there are issues of bandwidth and reliable connectivity. This results in some people losing out on ration or verifying their biometrics.

Mahesh Uppal, Director of Com First (India), hoped that the court’s judgement will correct this disparity by indirectly pressuring the State to devise policies to ensure connectivity where it doesn’t exist and expedite where connectivity is already available.

In terms of existing policies like BharatNet, Uppal said there are concerns in terms of BSNL’s capacity to deliver the service, missed deadlines of the project, etc.

“We need to remove whatever barriers there are in the growth of BharatNet, whether they are managerial, related to technology or sourcing, etc.,” he said.

Structural gaps
The current licensing and authorisation regime fails to incentivise people to fill the connectivity and access gaps due to various approvals and guarantees required, Uppal said. He pointed out that interested parties may not have the funds, willingness, capacity, technology to deal with such larger issues.

Further, he pointed out that meaningful connectivity also requires an appropriate device and ensuring accessible and affordable services. Data from Counterpoint Research, a market research firm, show that nearly 200 million people in India are still using 2G and 230-240 million people continue to use feature phones.

“This is where the Digital Bharat Nidhi [formerly Universal Service Obligation Fund] reform can help. Operators should not just be asked to connect, but to develop markets in those areas. That will increase attraction to and stickiness to the service, which is what you want,” said Uppal.

When designing applications for digital access, Prakash stressed the need to think from the perspective of the people using the service. He asked designers to consider whether every person is able to understand and trust the application.

“What this ruling highlights and reiterates is that we’re probably not [considering] this very well, especially in case of marginal groups. Technology designers need to understand the people who are going to use their services,” said Prakash.

He argued that technology designers tend to assume that what works in corporate settings will also work for rural settings and often dismiss issues to people’s illiteracy rather than the incompatible design.

“That is something that policy can bring back: good design practices with respect to technology. You need to understand the context, governance and development motivations behind the need of a technology rather than saying our technology is what it is and it’s for everyone else to fall in line,” said Prakash. The Hindu BusinessLine

Will the entry of Elon Musk’s Starlink disrupt India’s broadband universe dominated by telcos? That question has kept analysts busy after Starlink, a fully-owned subsidiary of SpaceX —majority owned by Musk — got the go-ahead from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) last week to start its satellite broadband service in the country.

For starters, Musk seems to be taking cautious steps, having waited three years for the Starlink application to get through. After a prolonged war of words between telcos led by Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel on one side and foreign players led by Musk on the other, the two sides have teamed up now.

Recently, both Jio and Airtel signed up with SpaceX for distribution of Starlink in India. Quite a switch from the days of clash —domestic players favoured auction of spectrum and the foreign companies sought administered allocation of airwaves. Airtel had shifted its stance from backing administered allocation of spectrum to supporting auction.

Many suggest that geopolitical relations between India and the United States played a role in facilitating the tieups between Starlink and the Indian telcos. Musk is a key advisor to US president Donald Trump.

That will reduce Starlink’s cost of setting up a distribution system from the scratch. In fact, in many countries, telcos have entered such tieups after initial resistance. Through such ventures with Starlink, Telstra in Australia offers services in remote areas, KDDI in Japan, and Roger Communications in Canada.

But unlike telcos in other countries, both Airtel’s promoter Sunil Mittal through One Web (across the globe, including India) and Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio are involved in a direct play in the satellite services market. Clashing head on with Starlink.

With the two straddling both terrestrial and satellite in India, most experts say they would still have a big upper hand to leverage their existing large mobile customer base for broadband services, while Starlink will start afresh.

Also unlike in many other markets, where telcos have substantial underserved or non-connected areas, the reality in India

is different. According to data available with GSMA (non-profit association representing the interests of mobile companies around the world), 99 per cent of India is already connected with mobile and as much as 96 per cent of the 650,000 villages in the country are linked with 4G or 5G technology. So they already have mobile broadband.

Competitors, who have closely followed Musk’s entry strategies for satellite broadband in many countries, say that Starlink is expected to tread slowly initially. Currently, with 5 million customers across the globe, it is still building the service in stages as more satellites and capacity are being put in the skies.

Starlink has dropped kit prices and tariffs in some markets. For instance, in Bhutan, where it recently launched the service, the tariffs range from ₹3,000 to 4,200 a month and initial mini starter kit is pegged at ₹17,000 going up to ₹33,000. But that is still at a large premium over terrestrial broadband services.

Analysts explain the maths for India. There are over 40 million households who have either fixed fibre broadband and fixed wireless broadband — mostly with Jio and Airtel across the country. This number is projected to hit 75 million to 100 million by 2030. To put it simply, only 13 per cent of the total 300 million households in the country are connected by broadband.

“We expect Starlink to churn subscribers from the top end of the existing market. If it can get 10 per cent of these households in a few years, it would be able to double its global subscriber base from India itself,” says a senior executive of a telco.

He adds that Starlink, like in most other countries, will price its offering at a premium or similar to FTTH (fiber to the home) and FWA (fixed wireless access) offered by telcos. The two services range between ₹2,500 (for 500 mbps) and ₹4,000 a month (1 gbps). In the early days, Starlink will have to launch more satellites and is unlikely to clog the service by playing the pricing or the volume game.

Another challenge for Starlink could be the entry cost — the steep kit price which consumers need to pay to start the service. Perhaps, it may have to subsidise compared to most telcos offering the set top boxes free, bundled with data, for a few months.

Once volumes increase and Starlink gets armed with more capacity, the game could change dramatically, explain analysts. That’s why the argument put out by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) that satellite services only complement terrestrial services is being debated by telcos.

Telcos argue that while they have to fork out huge instalments for auctioned spectrum, satellite players have been given flexibility — they pay more if they earn more.

Trai settled the issue of spectrum for satellite internet last week by recommending the administered allocation route for giving out airwaves. Satcom players will have to fork out 4 per cent of their adjusted gross revenue (AGR) and a top-up fee of ₹500 per subscriber in case of urban areas. Auction is out of the way.

Estimates are that for every ₹100 earned from a subscriber, telcos have to fork out ₹48 (including goods and services tax, spectrum usage charge, licence fee, and spectrum installment) for terrestrial services to the government. However, satellite service operators will have to fork out around ₹31 to ₹32 as they won’t need to pay installments for auctioned spectrum, an analyst says.

Starlink, which has put in 6,000 satellites in the air, hopes to hit 42,000 LEO (low earth orbit) satellites in two years. With the launch of new satellites (the cost of which is falling), the operator is expected to have a huge bandwidth capacity over the Indian region. According to experts, this could be equivalent to the total bandwidth capacity available to the largest telcos in the terrestrial space. Once that happens, Starlink will be able to play the pricing game, replicating the Jio playbook during the 4G launch.

Yet, despite competition, there are many areas where Starlink and the telcos can work together. One is the growing potential of direct smartphone- to-satellite connectivity. Starlink is already experimenting with many players including T-Mobile in the US, Optus and Telstra in Australia amongst others. And many mobile device players such as Apple and Google are already offering emergency text services in some countries via satellites in cases where cellular network is rare.

In India too, Starlink can tie up with Indian telcos, which can leverage their existing spectrum and subscriber base to offer the additional service. “We expect them to use our spectrum and offer direct satellite connectivity on Starlink satellites to our customers. That will be a win win revenue share model,” points out a senior executive in an internet company.

That can happen once the policy fineprint is out. For now, telcos such as Airtel and Jio — with their presence in terrestrial and satcom — seem well poised to take on satcom companies backed by Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. Business Standard

The US-based subscription video on-demand OTT platform Netflix’s investment in India generated $2 billion in local economic impact from 2021-24, with 20,000 cast and crew jobs created from its productions in the country, said Ted Sarandos, co-chief executive officer, Netflix.

At a panel discussion in the World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit (WAVES), Sarandos said that this is because the company has been committed towards local storytelling.

He further added that last year, about 3 billion hours of Indian content was available on the platform for the global audience.

“That is 60 million hours a week. Also, last year, every week there was a title from India on Netflix,” he said. Sarandos also highlighted that many Indian titles had made it to the company’s global top 10 charts in 2024.

He added that Indians have a great cinema culture present in the society.

“People love to go to the cinema and to watch movies on TV and also like to talk about cinema. That’s been true for many, many decades and that is what makes India so exciting for me too,” he noted.

Netflix has been operating in India since nine years and it gained its strong foothold seven years ago through the local production of a series, Sacred Games starring actor Saif Ali Khan.

Since then, the platform has produced around 150 original films and series and filmed across 90 different cities in India.
On the potential of India’s content comparing it to the global presence of K-dramas, Sarandos said, “India is on the cusp of a big inflection point for a storyteller, the way that Squid Game was that kind of moment for (South) Korea.”

He thinks that India is about to have a wide global presence like South Korean content as the building blocks have been laid through initiatives like the WAVES.

“Through streaming platforms like Netflix and others, you (Indian content) have a distribution platform to make that possible and the streaming platforms have enabled democratisation of film making in India,” Sarandos added.

While on the subject of streaming platforms affecting the growth of the cinema in India post-pandemic, he said that cinema and streaming are coexisting.

“Cinemas are not outdated. Streaming and theaters are not competitors. They can move ahead coexisting with each other as the market before us is huge,” he explained. Business Standard

In an earnings quarter teeming with uncertainty around tariffs, Walt Disney’s (DIS.N), opens new tab quarterly results are looking like the happiest place on earth.

The media giant exceeded expectations in its most recent quarter, bolstered by an unexpected boost in its Disney+ streaming business and strong results from its theme parks that suggested consumer resilience despite a turbulent global economic environment.

“Despite questions around any macroeconomic uncertainty or the impact of competition, I’m encouraged by the strength and resilience of our business,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said.

The entertainment giant released its earnings report shortly before announcing plans for a new theme park in United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi. Shares of the company rose nearly 10% in early trading as it posted adjusted earnings per share of $1.45 for the January-to-March quarter, beating the $1.20 analysts’ consensus as polled by LSEG.

“At a time when so many businesses in the U.S. are worried about the potential impact of tariffs on consumer spending, on household budgets, Disney is feeling confident,” said Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell.

The company – unlike many other blue-chip companies – voiced a lofty outlook for the rest of the year. Disney is leaning on its streaming business to grow profits as traditional television declines and to expand its popular theme parks and cruise line in the midst of a shaky U.S. economy.

Revenue rose 7% to $23.6 billion. Analysts had expected $23.14 billion. Operating income came in at $4.4 billion.

Disney forecast adjusted earnings per share of $5.75 for fiscal 2025, an increase of 16% from the prior fiscal year.

The company reiterated guidance for 6% to 8% operating income growth in the parks-led Experiences division during the fiscal year, and for double-digit percentage operating income growth during that time in the entertainment unit.

Disney Chief Financial Officer Hugh Johnston told investors that “the outlook is actually still quite strong” for the company’s Experiences unit, with bookings up in the fiscal third and fourth quarters. Theme park attendance “is actually still quite good.” The lone exception is at Shanghai Disney Resort and Hong Kong Disneyland, where attendance has dropped, which he attributed to the Chinese economy.

Iger said Disney’s newest cruise ship, Disney Treasure, has attracted “sky high” consumer ratings; and the new vessel to be ported in Singapore is already attracting interest. He predicted the cruise line would become a growth driver for the Experiences segment over the next three to four years.

Disney said it picked up 1.4 million customers for the Disney+ streaming service during the just-ended quarter. Three months ago, it had warned of a modest decline in Disney+ subscribers following a price increase.

Its Hulu service added 1.1 million customers during the quarter, and operating income at the streaming division rose to $336 million. A year earlier, operating income stood at $47 million.

Iger told investors Disney is optimistic it can turn its streaming business into a “true growth business,” as it adds ESPN’s flagship live sports streaming, improves technology to allow for greater personalization, and invests in content outside of the U.S.

The entertainment unit reported total operating income of $1.3 billion, a 61% increase from the prior year.

Johnston told investors Disney continues to see “robust demand” from advertisers, particularly from restaurants and healthcare.

Iger touted the box office performance of the latest Marvel movie, “Thunderbolts*,” and the strength of the coming film slate, which includes a new Pixar Animation movie, “Elio,” Walt Disney Animation’s “Zootopia 2,” and “Avatar: Fire and Ash.”

At the Experiences unit, operating income rose 9% to $2.5 billion. The company also saw an increase in cruise ship bookings with the launch of a new vessel, the Disney Treasure.

Disney stock has fallen 17% this year compared with a 4.7% decline in the S&P 500 (.SPX), opens new tab. The shares have fallen 6.6% since April. Reuters

Netflix’s homepage is getting a makeover.

The streaming giant announced Wednesday that it is revamping its look to make the platform “more personal” and improve its interface. It is Netflix’s first major redesign since 2013.

“We’ve been constantly improving it over the last 12 years, mostly behind the scenes, but now, thanks to a combination of new technology and the expansion of our entertainment offerings, we think it’s time to take a giant leap forward,” Eunice Kim, Netflix’s chief product officer, said in a presentation about the update.

The new layout is designed to increase Netflix’s ability to tailor its suggestions to each viewer, make navigation easier and create a Netflix Hub, which will be personalized to each user, according to Netflix’s publication, Tudum.

Netflix continues to double down on its offerings to its subscribers, including live events programming. It has already hosted its first NFL games, and weekly World Wrestling Entertainment “Raw” shows began streaming this year.

The homepage updates are “simpler, more intuitive and better represents the breadth of entertainment on Netflix today,” Kim said, adding that Netflix “reaches a global audience of more than 700 million people with incredibly diverse tastes.”

“Our current TV experience was built for streaming shows and movies,” Kim said. “This one is designed to give us a more flexible canvas now and in the future.”

The new TV Experience “will start rolling out to members later this month,” Netflix said in its announcement.

It said it will also test a vertical feed for mobile users, which will feature clips from users’ “top picks for you” and allow them to tap to watch shows or movies immediately, add them to their lists or share the titles with their friends.

Netflix also plans to roll out a generative artificial intelligence search tool for mobile that will allow users to ask Netflix for recommendations using more conversational language, such as “I want to watch something funny and upbeat.”

“Everything starts with great shows and movies that people love,” Elizabeth Stone, Netflix’s chief technology officer, said in a statement. “But if you think about all of the areas where Netflix has a big advantage, our reach, our recommendations, our fandom, technology enables all those things. That technology includes AI.” NBC News