“Q3 to date, we are seeing healthy demand driven by the NBA playoffs and domestic ESPN cash ad sales are pacing up.”

In context

“n improvement over the prior quarter and prior year. Moving to sports. Second quarter operating income decreased slightly versus the prior year, driven primarily by a decrease at ESPN, offset by improved results at Star India sports. As expected, at ESPN, lower results at the domestic business reflects higher programming and production costs from the timing of an additional college football playoff game in the quarter versus the prior year, which were only partially offset by higher ad revenue. Domestic affiliate revenue also decreased in the quarter. ESPN domestic ad sales increased by more than 20% versus the prior year or high single digits when adjusted for the college football playoff timing shift of an additional game as well as a new NFL divisional playoff game in Q2 of this year. Q3 to date, we are seeing healthy demand driven by the NBA playoffs and domestic ESPN cash ad sales are pacing up. At Star, higher results in Q2 versus the prior year include the impact of a decrease in programming and production costs attributable to the nonrenewal of BCCI cricket rights. Looking ahead, note that we are currently expecting to incur linear ICC rights expense at Star India in Q3. At Experiences, second quarter revenue grew 10%, operating income grew 12%, and segment margins expanded by 60 basis points versus the prior year. Parks and Experiences OI increased by 13% year-over-year and consumer products OI increased by 7%. Strong international Parks growth was driven by Hong Kong Disneyland Resort while Walt Disney World and the Cruise business both contributed to domestic growth. At Disneyland, despite growing attendance and per capita spend, results declined year-over-year due to cos”