Walt Disney
Q1 2023 Earnings Call
Feb 08, 2023, 4:30 p.m. ET
Contents:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Good day, and welcome to The Walt Disney Company's first quarter 2023 financial results conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. [Operator instructions] After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. [Operator instructions] Please note today's event is being recorded.
I would now like to turn the conference over to Alexia Quadrani, senior vice president of investor relations. Please go ahead.
Alexia Quadrani -- Senior Vice President, Investor Relations
Good afternoon. It's my pleasure to welcome everybody to the Walt Disney Company's first quarter 2023 earnings call. Our press release was issued about 25 minutes ago and is available on our website at www.disney.com/investors. Today's call is being webcast, and a replay and transcript will also be made available on our website.
Joining me for today's call are Bob Iger, Disney's chief executive officer; and Christine McCarthy, senior executive vice president and chief financial officer. Following comments from Bob and Christine, we'll be happy to take some of your questions. We have a lot to get through today, but we'll do our best to answer as many questions as we can. So, with that, let me turn the call over to Bob to get started.
Bob Iger -- Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Alexia, and good afternoon, everyone. It's an extraordinary privilege to lead this remarkable company again, especially at the special moment in its history as we celebrate our centenary. Since I first became CEO in 2005, I have guided the Walt Disney Company through two significant transformations. The first was to confer greater creative control and authority to our creative businesses and to focus on great brands and franchises.
It was also aimed at embracing new technologies and expanding internationally. It ultimately led to the acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm. Second transformation took place beginning in 2016 when we laid the foundation for Disney to become a true digital company. As we were planning to launch our streaming platforms, the opportunity arose to acquire numerous assets from 21st Century Fox.
And that acquisition gave us a bigger library with more franchises, a broader global reach, and a talented experienced management team that enabled us to generate even more higher-quality content. In 2019, Disney+ launched, with nearly 500 films and 7,500 episodes of television from across the world of Disney. Three years later, its meteoric rise is considered one of the most successful rollouts in the history of the media business. Now, it's time for another transformation, one that rationalizes our enviable streaming business and puts it on a path to sustained growth and profitability while also reducing expenses to improve margins and returns and better positioning us to weather future disruption, increased competition, and global economic challenges.