During Disney Investor Day, Disney announced that Hulu now has 38.8 million subscribers as of December 2nd. Disney previously announced that Hulu reached 36.6 million subscribers as the end of September. Much of that growth is likely from their Hulu Black Friday deal, which has returned for the third year in a row.
In comparison to Hulu, which only operates in the U.S., Netflix recently announced that they had over 73 million subscribers in the U.S. and Canada.
Last quarter figures included 32.5 million Hulu SVOD subscribers and 4.1 million Hulu Live TV subscribers. They didn’t provide an update to their Hulu + Live TV subscribers. On the Q4 Earnings Call, Disney CEO Bob Chapek, said that Hulu Live TV is an important hedge with cord-cutting sports fans.
Hulu Live TV maintains its lead as the largest Live TV Streaming Service. YouTube TV recently announced they surpassed three million subscribers in their Q3 earnings report, while Sling TV is now the third largest after they added 203K subscribers in Q3, giving them 2.458 million.
During the presentation, Hulu’s President Kelly Campbell shared that the company plans to add a direct integration with ESPN+ early next year. That means customers will be able to purchase and watch live sports available on ESPN+ without leaving the Hulu app.
She also shared that the launch of FX on Hulu has seen a 50% increase in reach of FX content than what would have normally be seen with linear content.
Because of the success of hit movies like “Run” and “Palm Springs”, they expect to release more original films on Hulu next year. They have also partnered with ABC News for original content on the platform.