Disney+ Adds 7.9 Million Subscribers in US, Canada; Global Total Climbs to 153.6M
Dinsey’s streaming ambitions have been undergoing significant changes over the past few months, and on Tuesday, the company reported that its flagship streaming platform Disney+ added 4 million customers during the first three months of the year. At the end of the company’s second quarter of the 2024 fiscal year, Disney+ had 153.6 million global subscribers, a decline of 4.2% year over year. In the United States and Canada, Disney+ now sits at 54 million subscribers, following an increase of 7.9 million customers. This is the largest domestic subscriber increase since the company began reporting those numbers.
In terms of revenue, Disney+ saw a 2% decline in ARPU (average revenue per user) in the United States and Canada, going from $8.15 to $8.00. In the rest of the world, outside of India, ARPU increased from $5.91 to $6.66. However, in India, Disney+ Hotstar saw a dip from $1.28 to $0.70.
Over the past year, Disney+’s global totals have suffered significant declines after the company opted not to renew its Indian Premier Cricket rights. Due to that shift, Q2 2024 represents just the second quarter of global subscriber growth in the past year and a half for Disney+.The company sold a controlling interest in Star India — which includes Disney+ Hotstar — earlier this year for a loss.
The company hopes to return begin returning to regular growth starting this summer when it begins implementing anti-password-sharing rules across all three of its streamers, Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+.
On Tuesday, the company reported that Hulu has 50.2M total subscribers and ESPN+ boasts 24.8M. That brings Disney’s combined streaming audience to 228.6M, not counting for redundancies due to the Disney Bundle. However, those totals could fall as well as Disney appears to be moving toward one massive streamer. In March, Disney officially began allowing Bundle subscribers to stream Hulu titles from the Disney+ platform, and while there has been no official discussion about completely merging the two platforms, once Disney’s acquisition of Comcast's 33% of Hulu is finalized, the House of Mouse could start moving to more fully integrate its services to reflect how its streaming products look around the world.
Last month, Disney CEO Bob Iger said that he believes that his company’s streaming presence will rival that of Netflix’s, saying in an annual shareholders’ call that Disney has the opportunity to become the “ultimate streaming destination for consumers.” While the executive didn’t go so far as to say how or when that would happen, the presumption is that it would involve bringing all of the company’s streaming offerings under one roof. While Disney currently offers the trio of streamers — Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ — it is also hard at work on two other platforms.
Scheduled to launch this fall is a joint venture sports streaming service with Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery. This platform has been at the center of numerous legal maneuvers recently, as competitors claim that it violates anti-trust laws. The other forthcoming streamer is one that has long been in the making for Disney. With a fall 2025 launch date, the company is set to combine all of the sports programming from ESPN into a single, standalone streamer that will bring all of the worldwide leader in sports’ broadcasts, analysis, and conversations together for the first time.
While the JV with Fox and WBD likely won’t play into plans for a consolidated Disney streamer, the ESPN platform will. Iger confirmed that when then service launches next year, it will be available via Disney+. The CEO did not indicate whether it will also be available on its own, but having it serve as an optional add-on for Disney+ would seem to be in line with other Disney products. Currently, a Disney+ subscription ranges from $7.99 monthly for ad-supported to $13.99 for ad-free. It has been reported that ESPN's service will cost between $25-$30 per month.
Currently, Disney offers the entire Disney Bundle — including Hulu on-demand, Disney+, and ESPN+ — for free to subscribers to its Hulu + Live TV streaming service, which costs $76.99 per month. So, while making the higher-priced ESPN service another function of the bundle would seem to fit into how the company is looking to further bring all of its streaming offerings under on ever-growing and evolving roof.
Disney+
Disney+ is a video streaming service with over 13,000 series and films from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, The Muppets, and more. It is available in 61 countries and 21 languages. It is notable for its popular original series like “The Mandalorian,” “Ms. Marvel,” “Loki,” “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” and “Andor.”