You are given a text that consists of multiple sentences. Your task is to perform abstractive summarization on this text. Use your understanding of the content to express the main ideas and crucial details in a shorter, coherent, and natural sounding text. 
Text: As we begin the final year of The Walt Disney Company's first century, I am pleased to share our results for the first quarter of fiscal 2022, starting with the highlights.
Our adjusted earnings per share of $1.06 is up from $0.32 a year ago.
Our domestic parks and resorts achieved all-time revenue and operating income records despite the Omicron surge.
And our streaming services ended Q1 with 196.4 million total subscriptions after adding 17.4 million in the quarter, including 11.8 million Disney+ subscribers.
I'll share more about those items shortly.
But first, I want to talk about this unique moment in the history of The Walt Disney Company.
It is perhaps fitting that our 100th anniversary comes at a time of significant change for us and our industry.
In the midst of a global pandemic, fast-changing consumer expectations and a leadership transition, we reimagined our parks business, substantially increased our investment in content creation and executed a reorganization that will facilitate our ongoing transformation.
Each of those actions has helped set the stage for our second century.
And as we approach that remarkable milestone, I am filled with optimism.
We have the world's most creative storytelling engine, an unmatched collection of brands and franchises and an ability to tell stories that form deep emotional connections with audiences.
We have a portfolio of distribution platforms, including powerful and growing streaming services.
We have diverse revenue streams that span business models and industries, but which all are interconnected to create entertainment's most powerful synergy machine.
We have the country's top news organization and the most trusted brand for following sports and our theme parks continue to be the most magical places on Earth.
In short, our collection of assets and platforms, creative capabilities, and unique place in the cultural zeitgeist give me great confidence that we will continue to define entertainment for the next 100 years.
To carry through on that promise, we will be guided by three strategic pillars: storytelling excellence, innovation, and audience focus.
Storytelling excellence is, of course, dependent on having excellent storytellers.
I am thrilled to share that our legacy of being home to the most accomplished leaders in the industry will continue, as nearly all of our top creative executives have recently renewed, extended, or signed new contracts.
I could not be more excited to continue working with these creative powerhouses.
The quality content from our teams was recognized just yesterday with a fantastic 23 Oscar nominations, including three of the five best animated feature films: Pixar's Luca; Walt Disney Animation's Raya and the Last Dragon; and our newest franchise, Walt Disney Animation's Encanto, which received three nominations.
Summer of Soul was recognized in the best documentary category, and Nightmare Alley and West Side Story both received best picture nominations.
As you may have seen earlier today, we announced West Side Story will debut in most Disney+ markets on March 2, and we can't wait for our subscribers to see this incredible film.
In Q1, our studios took us deeper into the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Eternals and the Disney+ original series, Hawkeye, and returned us to that galaxy far, far away with another Disney+ original series, The Book of Boba Fett.
Our general entertainment teams also continued to produce programming of the highest quality.
In fact, last year, our general entertainment team produced nearly a quarter of the industry's best-reviewed shows.
And Q1 saw 10 of their shows achieve a 100% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes.
That includes Abbott Elementary, the first freshman broadcast comedy to earn the 100% Certified Fresh score since ABC's own Modern Family in 2009.
Our success in branded storytelling is, of course, no secret.
However, it's often lost that the depth, breadth, and quality of our general entertainment content is also a driving force behind the success of our streaming services.
In fact, six of the 10 most-watched programs across our services are general entertainment titles produced by our own team.
And general entertainment is an increasingly powerful driver of engagement in most of our international markets where such content is already included in our service under the Star brand.
Going forward, integrating more owned general entertainment into our services, especially Disney+, will be a priority.
In fact, just today, we added episodes of Grown-ish, Black-ish, and The Wonder Years to our domestic Disney+ service.
Rounding out our content focus is, of course, sports.
Sporting events continue to be the most powerful draw in television, accounting for 95 of the 100 most-watched live broadcast in 2021.
And ESPN once again set the bar this quarter with live games across each of our four major U.S. sports, including the revolutionary Monday Night with Peyton and Eli.
And I am pleased to announce that we have expanded our agreement with Peyton Manning and his Omaha Productions company to extend our relationship through the 2024 NFL season.
While multiplatform television and streaming will continue to be the foundation of sports coverage for the immediate future, we believe the opportunity for The Walt Disney Company goes well beyond these channels.
It extends to sports betting, gaming, and the metaverse.
In fact, that's what excites us, the opportunity to build a sports machine akin to our franchise flywheel that enables audiences to experience, connect with and become actively engaged with their favorite sporting events, stories, teams, and players.
Turning to distribution results.
The continued growth of our streaming services was certainly a standout.
Our success at Disney+ this quarter was not the result of any one item, but instead a combination of organic growth and powerful new content, our strategic decision to include the Disney bundle with all Hulu Live subscriptions, and new market launches.
The remainder of this fiscal year will feature compelling Disney+ originals from across our brands and franchises, beginning with Pixar's Turning Red and Marvel Studios' Moon Knight in March.
And the back half of FY '22 will feature a truly stunning array of content, including two Star Wars series: Andor and the highly anticipated Obi-Wan Kenobi, which I am excited to announce will premiere on May 25.
We'll debut two Marvel series, Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk; fresh new shorts from Disney Animation and Pixar featuring the worlds of Big Hero 6 and Cars; a live-action reimagining of the Disney classic Pinocchio, starring Tom Hanks as Geppetto; and one of the most anticipated sequels in some time, especially in the Chapek household, Hocus Pocus 2.
As I've said before, we continue to manage our services for the long term and maintain confidence in our guidance of 230 million to 260 million total paid Disney+ subscribers globally by the end of fiscal 2024.
Christine will provide more detail into our theatrical results.
However, I want to reiterate that we continue to see value in the moviegoing experience, especially for big franchise blockbusters.
And given the performance of titles like Spider-Man: No Way Home, we are looking forward to kicking off our summer slate with another Marvel franchise film, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
That said, audiences will be our North Star as we determine how our content is distributed.
And we do not subscribe to the belief that theatrical distribution is the only way to build a Disney franchise.
This quarter, audiences proved us right as Encanto became a phenomenon within days of its arrival on Disney+ after families' continued reluctance to return to theaters resulted in a muted theatrical performance.
With outstanding music from Lin-Manuel Miranda, it became the fastest title to cross 200 million hours viewed on Disney+ and took social media by storm.
People around the world expressed their fandom through their own content and conversation, and the Encanto hashtag has been viewed more than 11 billion times.
The soundtrack, which debuted at No.
197 on the Billboard 200 chart, reached No.
1 shortly after debuting on Disney+.
And eight of the film's songs hit the Hot 100 chart, including We Don't Talk About Bruno, which became the first Disney song to reach No.
1 since Aladdin's A Whole New World in 1993.
At the same time, sales of Encanto merchandise defied traditional post-holiday declines and actually increased following the film's release on Disney+ on Christmas Eve and guests at Disney California Adventure have loved seeing Mirabel in real life.
These results are exactly what you would expect from the launch of a new Disney franchise, and we are thrilled that Disney+ was the catalyst.
We are more confident than ever in this platform as a content service, a franchise engine, and as a venue for the next generation of Disney storytelling.
Finally, I could not be more pleased with the performance of our Parks, Experiences and Products segment, which posted its second best quarter of all time.
Over the last several years, we've transformed the guest experience by investing in new storytelling and groundbreaking technology, and the records at our domestic parks are the direct result of this investment.
From new franchise-based lands and attractions, to craveable food and beverage offerings, to must-have character merchandise, there is more great Disney storytelling infused into every aspect of a visit to our parks than ever before.
At the same time, we're giving guests new tools to personalize their visits and spend less time in line and more time having fun.
While we anticipated these products would be popular, we have been blown away by the reception.
In the quarter, more than a third of domestic park guests purchased either Genie+, Lightning Lane, or both.
That number rose to more than 50% during the holiday period.
While demand was strong throughout the quarter at both domestic sites, our reservation system enabled us to strategically manage attendance.
In fact, their stellar performance was achieved at lower attendance levels than 2019.
As we return to a more normalized environment, we look forward to more fully capitalizing on the extraordinary demand for our parks, along with the already realized yield benefits that took shape this quarter.
And we, of course, will continue to invest in the guest experience.
I am personally looking forward to Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser at Walt Disney World, a two-night adventure into the most immersive Star Wars story ever created.
Later this summer, we will debut an innovative new roller coaster at Epcot, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, and open Avengers Campus at Disneyland Paris, where the iconic Quinjet landed a few weeks ago ahead of the resort's 30th-anniversary celebrations.
Our company is truly extraordinary, and I am honored to work with the most talented team in the industry to create the next generation of Disney stories and experiences through our focus on storytelling excellence, innovation, and our audience.
With that, I'll hand it over to Christine.
Excluding certain items, diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $1.06, an increase of $0.74 from the prior-year quarter.
Fiscal 2022 is off to a good start as evidenced by our first-quarter results and our continued progress toward more normalized operations across our businesses.
At parks, experiences, and products, operating income was up $2.6 billion year over year as all of our parks and resorts around the world were open for the entirety of the fiscal first quarter.
In the prior-year quarter, Walt Disney World Resort and Shanghai Disney Resort were open for the entire quarter, while Hong Kong Disneyland Resort and Disneyland Paris were each open for a limited number of weeks and Disneyland Resort was closed for the entire quarter.
At our domestic parks, we were very pleased with the strong levels of demand we saw from both Walt Disney World and Disneyland.
And as Bob mentioned, our reservation system has allowed us to strategically manage attendance.
Overall, attendance trends at our domestic parks continued to strengthen in the quarter with Walt Disney World and Disneyland Q1 attendance up double digits versus Q4, in part reflecting holiday seasonality.
Per capita spending at our domestic parks was up more than 40% versus fiscal first quarter 2019 driven by a more favorable guest and ticket mix, higher food, beverage and merchandise spending and contributions from Genie+ and Lightning Lane.
Putting these factors together, our domestic parks and resorts delivered Q1 revenue and operating income exceeding pre-pandemic levels even as we continued managing attendance to responsibly address ongoing COVID considerations.
Looking ahead to Q2, our demand pipeline for domestic guests at Walt Disney World and Disneyland remain strong, benefiting from our 50th-anniversary celebration at Walt Disney World and new attractions and experiences at both parks.
At international parks, a profitable first quarter reflected improving trends at Disneyland Paris.
We also saw improved results at Hong Kong Disneyland, although the resort is now temporarily closed in response to a resurgence in COVID cases in the region.
We expect international parks will continue to be impacted by COVID-related volatility for the remainder of Q2.
Moving on to our media and entertainment distribution segment.
First-quarter operating income decreased by more than $600 million versus the prior year as revenue growth across our lines of business was more than offset by higher programming and production costs.
Revenue growth in the quarter was primarily driven by increased subscription fees from our direct-to-consumer services.
We also delivered record advertising revenues for the segment as we continue to see strong advertiser demand for our live sports and streaming and digital businesses.
Turning to our results by line of business.
At linear networks, you may recall that we guided to a decrease in operating income of nearly $500 million for Q1 versus the prior year.
Operating income of $1.5 billion came in better than expected, primarily driven by our international channels, which I'll discuss in a minute.
At our domestic channels, both broadcasting and cable operating income decreased in the first quarter versus the prior year.
Lower results at broadcasting were impacted by an adverse comparison to prior year political advertising revenue at our owned television stations, as we noted in the guidance we gave last quarter.
At cable, the year-over-year decrease in operating income reflected higher programming and production costs and increased marketing spend, partially offset by increases in advertising and affiliate revenue.
Growth in advertising revenue was driven by ESPN as we benefited from the start of a normalized NBA calendar and increased viewership for football.
ESPN advertising revenue in the first quarter was up 14% versus the prior year and second quarter-to-date domestic cash advertising sales at ESPN are currently pacing up.
Total domestic affiliate revenue increased by 2% in the quarter.
This was primarily driven by six points of growth from higher rates, offset by a four-point decline due to a decrease in subscribers.
Operating income at our international channels decreased slightly versus the prior year.
These results came in more than $200 million better than our prior guidance primarily due to lower programming and production costs as well as better-than-expected advertising and affiliate revenues.
At direct-to-consumer, first-quarter operating results decreased by $127 million year over year, driven by higher losses at Disney+ and ESPN+, partially offset by improved results at Hulu.
I'll note that beginning this quarter, we are providing disclosure on our programming and production expenses by service as well as additional detail for Disney+ in our 10-Q.
Operating losses at Disney+ increased versus the prior year as growth in subscription revenue was more than offset by higher programming, technology, and marketing costs.
We ended the quarter with nearly 130 million global paid Disney+ subscribers, reflecting over 11 million net additions from Q4.
Taking a look at subscriber growth by region.
We added 4.1 million paid domestic Disney+ subscribers, including a benefit of approximately 2 million incremental subscribers from our strategic decision to include Disney+ and ESPN+ as part of a Hulu Live subscription.
In international markets, excluding Disney+ Hotstar, we added 5.1 million paid subscribers, primarily driven by growth in Asia Pacific and European markets.
I'll note that growth in Asia included the benefit of new market launches in South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong in the quarter.
Finally, we were able to resume growth in Disney+ Hotstar markets with 2.6 million paid subscriber additions in the quarter.
Overall, we are pleased with Disney+ subscriber growth in the quarter and are looking forward to new market launches and a strong content slate later this year.
As I've previously shared, we don't anticipate that subscriber growth will necessarily be linear from quarter to quarter, and we continue to expect growth in the back half of the fiscal year to exceed growth in the first half.
At ESPN+, we ended the first quarter with over 21 million paid subscribers versus 17 million in Q4.
Results decreased compared to the prior year as growth in subscription revenue was more than offset by higher sports programming costs driven by the NHL and LaLiga.
And at Hulu, higher subscription revenues versus the prior year were partially offset by higher programming and production costs driven by increased affiliate fees for live TV.
Hulu ended the first quarter with 45.3 million paid subscribers, inclusive of 4.3 million subscribers to our Hulu Live digital MVPD service.
Moving on to content sales/licensing and other.
Results decreased in the first quarter versus the prior year to an operating loss of $98 million, driven by lower theatrical results and higher film impairments, partially offset by improved TV SVOD results.
As I noted last quarter, while theaters have generally reopened, we are still experiencing a prolonged recovery to theatrical exhibition, particularly for certain genres of films, including non-branded general entertainment and family focused animation.
This dynamic contributed to increased losses in the quarter as we released more titles in Q1 this year versus the prior year, resulting in lower theatrical results.
This was partially offset by income from our co-production of Spider-Man: No Way Home.
As we look ahead, we would like to give you some context around two items that may impact our second-quarter results.
First, as we continue to increase our investment in content, we expect programming and production costs at DMED to increase versus the prior year, primarily driven by direct-to-consumer and linear networks.
At direct-to-consumer, we expect programming and production expenses to increase by approximately $800 million to $1 billion, including programming fees for Hulu Live.
At linear networks, we expect programming and production expenses to increase by approximately $500 million, reflecting factors including COVID-related timing shifts.
We aired four additional NFL games at the start of the current quarter.
And as a reminder, the Academy Awards will be held in Q2 of this year, while it fell into Q3 of the prior year.
Second, at content sales/licensing and other, a difficult Q2 comparison to prior year TV and SVOD program sales is due in part to our strategic decision to hold more of our owned and produced content for our direct-to-consumer services.
As a result, we expect operating income to be adversely impacted by more than $200 million versus the prior-year quarter.
[Operator instructions] And with that, operator, we're ready for the first question.

user
q1 earnings per share $1.06 excluding items.
11.8 million disney+ subscribers added in q1.
saw significant increase in total subscriptions across our streaming portfolio to 196.4 million.
as of quarter-end total hulu paid subscribers were 45.3 million.
at disney media and entertainment segment, our film and television productions have generally resumed.
we have seen disruptions of production activities depending on local circumstances.
in fiscal 2022, domestic parks and experiences are generally operating without significant mandatory covid-19-related restrictions.
qtrly lower results at disney+ reflected higher programming and production, marketing and technology costs.
have incurred, and will continue to incur, costs to address government regulations and safety of employees, guests and talent.
qtrly higher subscription revenue at disney+ was due to subscriber growth and increases in retail pricing.

assistant