Hulu Adds 500,000 Customers During Q2 2024; Streamer Climbs North of 50M Subscribers for First Time Ever
Hulu + Live TV sees minimal decline following college football and NFL seasons conclude.
Disney is ahead of most companies with its fiscal calendar, but is it ahead of its own goals for streaming profitability? Observers got a look for themselves this week, as Disney unveiled its fiscal earnings results for its second quarter of 2024 on Tuesday.
As part of the report, Disney revealed that its general entertainment streamer Hulu had gained 500,000 customers during the quarter. Its new total is now 50.2 million, up from the 49.7 million the streamer claimed at the end of its fiscal first quarter. This is the most customers that Disney’s general entertainment platform has ever had.
Hulu’s total includes the customers for its live TV streaming, which now has 4.5 million customers, a change of just 100,000 customers from the 4.6 million it announced in February. Given that the college football and NFL seasons ended during the last quarter, the number should be seen as a positive given the relatively small level of churn. Average revenue per user (ARPU) generated by Hulu’s on-demand platform during the quarter ticked down to $11.84, a decrease from the previous quarter’s $12.29. Hulu + Live TV brought in 95.01 in ARPU, an increase of $1.4 from Q1.
Hulu was not the only Disney streamer to see quarterly growth during Q2 2024. The company’s flagship streamer Disney+ added 7.9 million subscribers in the United States and Canada to help push its total to 153.6 million customers worldwide. Disney’s sports-focused service ESPN+ saw a modest 400K decline following the end of the football seasons to settle in at 24.8 million subscribers.
How Does Hulu Compare with the Competition?
As a general entertainment streaming service, Hulu faces both the advantage of having lots of different kinds of content to enjoy, and the disadvantage of not really having a way to stand out from its peers. That’s one of the reason’s it’s firmly in the middle of the pack when it comes to subscriber totals.
For example, Netflix now has 269.6M subscribers around the world, and Warner Bros. Discovery now has 97.7M between Max and discovery+. Paramount+ tallies 71.2M customers, leaving Hulu ahead of only Peacock and its 34 million paid customers. Apple TV+ does not report its numbers publicly. Prime Video usually keeps its subscriber totals private as well, but recently revealed it had over 200M global viewers.
What Has Hulu Been Up to During the Quarter?
The biggest story of Hulu’s quarter was the official rollout of the Hulu on Disney+ experience. Hulu titles had been available to stream on Disney+ as part of a public beta test since last December, but at the end of March Hulu on Disney+ officially launched with a new Disney+ app logo and a goal of creating more “engagement, retention and happy, happy subscribers.”
The integration was highly challenging from a technical aspect, forcing Disney to make upgrades to all aspects of its streaming suite. Disney CEO Bob Iger said in March that around half of all new Hulu subscribers now bundle with Disney+, showing its efforts to further integrate its services will likely be rewarded with even more enthusiasm from customers.
Hulu was the first of the three Disney streaming platforms to update its user agreement with provisions against the sharing of accounts. Disney+ and ESPN+ have since followed Hulu’s lead, and Disney will begin enforcing rules to stop users from sharing streaming accounts this summer.
In April, Hulu + Live TV began a new experiment: a free trial. New customers to the service can now stream its vast channel guide, including local broadcast channels and a host of top cable networks at no cost for three days. Hulu + Live TV already grants customers free access to Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, but the free trial ups the value proposition of the service even more.
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