As a whole, Hasbro is doing well as a toy company, turning profits for shareholders on a regular basis. Boys products are posting growths, as are the Preschool categories and overall revenues are expanding. However there is really only one category any of us care about, which is the category of "Girls Products", which has just reported its 4th consecutive quarter of declines in revenue.
Why do we care about the "Girls Products" category you ask?
Well, you probably didn't actually ask that or else you'd be pretty damn stupid, considering where you are right now, but regardless; we care because it is the category that My Little Pony products are in.
Things aren't looking so great on that frontier.
The Financial Report from Hasbro reads this "The Girls category revenues declined 28% in the third quarter 2015 to $294.8 million. FURBY continued to drive this decline along with relatively smaller declines in Franchise Brand MY LITTLE PONY, and a decline in FURREAL FRIENDS."
This represents a loss of nearly $113 Million compared to Q3 of 2014.
Over 9 months, the Girls Products category has lost $170.8 Million over the last 9 months, and an additional $36.4 Million dollars in the final Quarter of 2014.
In 12 months time, Girls Toys, including My Little Pony, have lost over $207 Million worth of revenue.
These losses of revenue are part of a continuing downward trend for the girls products category for Hasbro. These numbers, as reported from Hasbro, show the changes in revenue for the Girls category over the last 7 quarters.
Q1 2014 = +21%
Q2 2014 = +10%
Q2 2014 = +10%
Q3 2014 = +5%
Q4 2014 = -10%
Q1 2015 = -16%
Q2 2015 = -22%
Q4 2014 = -10%
Q1 2015 = -16%
Q2 2015 = -22%
Q3 2015 = -28%
As you can see, Girls Toys have had diminishing returns for nearly 2 years. Only recently however has My Little Pony been explicitly mentioned as being a contributing factor to the reductions.
Coincidentally, the last time that the Girls category posted increases, was when the HUB was on the air, instead of Discovery Family.
So what does this mean for pony?
Well, it's hard to say.
Surely this, coupled with the continuing plummet in audience and ratings for the television show itself (Season 5 has consistently posted the lowest audience numbers since 2012) cannot be a GOOD indicator for the future of the franchise. But Season 6, the MLP Movie, and at least one more Equestria Girls property are already slated for release in the next few years, so we don't expect pony to be put out to pasture just yet.
That being said, it's time we all admit that the pony wave has crested, crashed, and is rolling back out to sea. When will the next wave hit?
Nobody knows for sure. But let's look out at the horizon as the sun sets shall we?
That being said, it's time we all admit that the pony wave has crested, crashed, and is rolling back out to sea. When will the next wave hit?
Nobody knows for sure. But let's look out at the horizon as the sun sets shall we?
