Disney+ Grows Subscriber Base to 153.8 Million Worldwide, Disney Achieves Streaming Profitability a Quarter Early
Disney+ saw modest subscriber gains, but the company achieved streaming profitability a quarter earlier than anticipated.
It was bad news for Disney’s streaming subscribers on Tuesday as the company announced nearly universal price increases across its services and bundles, but it was good news on Wednesday for the entertainment company and its shareholders on Wednesday as it reported its earnings for the third quarter of the 2024 fiscal year. Disney’s flagship streaming service Disney+ added 200,000 subscribers from the 153.6 million it had three months ago.
As of the end of June, Disney+ had 54.8 million subscribers in the United States and Canada, an increase of 800,000 over the previous three months. This is the largest domestic subscriber increase since the company began reporting those numbers. The previous quarter saw a remarkable turnaround for Disney+ as it added 7.9 million UCAN subscribers following customer attrition in three of the previous four quarters. Internationally in Q3, Disney was still feeling the sting of its decision to not to renew its Indian Premier Cricket rights. Outside of the United States and Canada, Disney+ lost 600,000 subscribers to come in at 99 million for the segment.
Financially, the company’s flagship streaming service experienced a decline of 3% in ARPU (average revenue per user) in the United States and Canada, going from $8.00 to $7.74. In the rest of the world, other than in India, ARPU rose from $6.66 to $6.78. In India, Disney+ Hotstar saw an increase from $0.70 to $1.05.
For the first time since getting into the streaming business, Disney reported a quarterly profit in that segment of its business. In the three-month period that ended in June, Disney saw a net profit of $47 million from streaming. That marks a substantial year-over-year improvement as it lost $512 million during the corresponding period a year ago. In its letter to shareholders accompanying the report, Disney confirmed its guidance that its streaming services — Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ — would become profitable next quarter.
“We remain on track for the profitability of our combined streaming businesses to improve in Q4, with both Entertainment DTC and ESPN+ expected to be profitable in the quarter,” the company said. “We continue to feel optimistic about our trajectory, with multiple building blocks for improving margins over the coming years.”
On Tuesday, Disney announced that it would be raising the prices of nearly all of its standalone and bundled streaming products in October. An October price hike has become something of an annual tradition for the House of Mouse following a similar rate increase in 2023. If a minimum rate of $9.99 per month for just Disney+ or Hulu is too much for you to stomach, The Streamable’s David Satin has some picks for replacement streamers that could fill any forthcoming holes in your streaming lineup.
While falling outside of Q3, the other major news impacting Disney’s streaming operations was officially launched in late July. A historic inter-company bundle between Disney’s Hulu and Disney+ and Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max officially went on the market providing cord-cutters with nearly 40% savings on the combination of the three entertainment streamers.
Over the summer, Disney began rolling out anti-password-sharing rules in some countries in June with plans to implement the strategy around the world by September. across all three of its streamers, Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+.
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.”