Consumers coming back but still hesitant: Disney

WASHINGTON: US entertainment giant Disney said Wednesday that it was seeing a slight revival in consumer spending but that shoppers and tourists remain hesitant.

After a sharp downturn during the 2008-2009 recession, "The consumer is coming back, they haven't come back all the way back," said Jay Rasulo, The Walt Disney Company's senior executive vice president and chief financial officer.

"The consumer is wobbly, a little hesitant, but still buying," he told a conference with analysts.

Disney, which owns theme parks around the world, cruise ships, television channels and TV and film production businesses, has been able to push up prices somewhat on the revived spending, Rasulo said.

"We're very happy with the approach we've taken, which is to increase pricing and give up a bit of volume."

"Many operators are doing broad-based discounting, we haven't had to do that," he added.

He said Disney's media businesses, which include the ABC television group, sports network ESPN, and the A&E/Lifetime channels, were enjoying strong advertising sales at the national level, but weaker a local levels.

Political advertising, strong ahead of 2010's November congressional elections, had fallen off this year, he added.

Disney turned in $3.96 billion in profits in 2010 on $38.06 billion in revenues, after a sharp dip the year before.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011