Disney+ Loses 11.7M Subscribers in Q3 2023, Nearly All Losses Are International
Is it panic time at Disney+? The House of Mouse unveiled its third quarter fiscal year earnings report on Wednesday, and as part of the report revealed that Disney+ lost 11.7 million users between April and June, settling in at 146.1 global subscribers. Nearly all the losses come from subscribers in India who walked away when the combined Disney+ Hotstar platform lost IPL cricket.
The subtractions are a troubling sign for Disney+, which marks its third straight quarter of declines. In the final three months of 2022 Disney+ dropped 2.4 million subscribers, and in the first portion of 2023 it lost another 4 million users.
Despite the losses, Disney+ is still the top streaming platform in India.
Domestically, Disney+ lost 300,000 subscribers in its most recent quarter. It now sits at 46 million in the United States and Canada, and 100.1 million abroad.
Although Disney is still figuring out how best to transition its streaming services to their next phase of life, it can rest easy that it still can claim more streaming customers than any company besides Netflix. Netflix remains the world’s largest streamer at 238.39M users, followed by Disney+. Warner Bros. Discovery is in the third spot, with 95.8M users worldwide between its two streamers Max and discovery+. Paramount+ now has 61M customers, and Peacock is bringing up the rear of major subscription video services with 24M users. Neither Prime Video nor Apple TV+ reveal subscriber numbers publicly.
It’s been a quarter of transition for Disney when it comes to streaming. The company reaffirmed its commitment to buying the outstanding portion of Hulu it does not currently own from Comcast, and pledged to combine the two streamers into a “one-app” experience. Executives have also promised that a price increase is coming to Disney+’s ad-free tier at some point during this year, though few specifics about that rise have been released to the public yet.
The price increase is part of Disney’s continuing quest to make its streaming services show a profit. That’s also the reason the company began pulling underperforming titles from Disney+ during the quarter, absorbing nearly $2 billion in impairment charges to write down the content. Cuts are likely done for now, but more could come in the future if Disney doesn’t see the financial results it wants from the removals.
Internationally, Disney has been busy fighting new regulations that it says will make it harder for streamers to do business. One such law is currently under debate in the United Kingdom, a bill that forces streamers to maintain neutrality when discussing sensitive political or social issues in shows and movies. Another bill working its way through parliamentary procedure in the U.K. has drawn a protest from Disney; this one would force streamers to send regular reminders to customers that they’re still subscribed and should expect to continue paying subscription fees. Disney has already halted production of originals in Canada, perhaps in part due to a new law governing streaming service operations in that country.
There was some good financial news for Disney+ during the quarter. Its ad-supported plan accounts for more than a third of new signups to the service since it launched in December, and is outpacing Netflix's plan with ads. The company also announced a new partnership with Apple that will seeDisney+ embedded into the tech giant's new augmented reality headset, which is set to go on sale later this year.
As the writers and actors continue to strike, Disney may have given a preview of its strategy for filling potential programming gaps on linear channels this fall by sending episodes of “Ms. Marvel” to ABC in August. The company will have to be careful when doing so, however; this practice led to a lawsuit against former Disney+ executives, because moving streaming originals to TV allows the company to shift their marketing budgets, and potentially misrepresent their success on streaming as a result.
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.”