The Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) Company disappointed only the naysayers today for the most part today, turning in yet another quarter of the kind that produces gushing from the TV pundits and re-starts the pool on when CEO Bob Iger will deliver the other kind of results. Disney earned $1.13 billion, or $0.58 per share, up 32 percent over $931 million, or $0.44 per share, in the same quarter last year. Disney was aided by a stronger-than-expected performance from theme parks and, despite the writers’ strike, the network segment. More to come ...
Earnings release | Webcast | Transcript

From the earnings call: Iger spoke of the Disney difference. the company’s ability to parley brands across platforms, divisions, etc. Most detailed example: The Jonas Brothers “got great exposure on the Hannah Montana concert tour and subsequent 3D movie. That led to radio hits, a sold out U.S. concert tour, and a platinum CD. And next month they are starring in an original Disney Channel movie, Camp Rock, which premiers on four successive nights across four platforms—the Disney Channel, ABC, ABC Family, and Disney.com. And next year, they will be in their own Disney Channel series and a 3D theatrical release.”

Day-and-date video Iger describes Disney as bullish about day-and-date digital delivery or other forms of delivery but said its experiment with Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) was not “particularly conclusive.” Nothing negative but “mildy positive” and incremental. Over the next five years, he oredicts, “we think that you are going to see rollout of not only more films available through cable VOD but most of the other studios are joining us at Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) and selling movies on a day-and-date basis through that platform.” Meanwhile, physical sales will dominate indefinitely.

Videogames: Disney expects to spend roughly $200 million on videogames development through Disney Interactive Studios. Expect more ramp up before revenues and spending balance out. Iger spoke of the better demographics Disney is seeing as more younger kids and girls turn to games. Will Disney buy more? “On the game side, we are comfortable with the developers that we’ve bought. They’ve enabled us to ramp up investment and production in a focused and deliberate way. We never intended to go from zero to 60 in four seconds because that business is both risky and is highly dependent upon not only quality titles but quality production. And so we’ve taken what I’ll call a combination of an aggressive and a patient approach, earning aggressive in terms of our intent to go into the business at a significant level but patient in the sense that we didn’t believe that it had to happen all at once. And we like that discipline.”