Hulu Sees 1.2 Million Customer Quarterly Jump; Disney-Owned Streaming Service at 49.7 Million to End 2023
Things could look very different around Hulu when 2024 ends. Disney’s general entertainment streamer may undergo some serious changes this year, which will no doubt affect all of the millions of subscribers on the service. Disney released Hulu’s earnings for its first fiscal quarter of 2024 —the period encompassing October through December 2023, as Disney’s fiscal calendar is a quarter ahead of most other companies — and as part of the report unveiled that Hulu now has 49.7 million subscribers, up 1.2 million from the end of last quarter when it had 48.5 million.
Hulu’s flagship on-demand entertainment platform makes up the majority of those customers, and all of the quarterly increase, coming in at 45.1 million, up 1.2M. The service also offers a wide variety of streaming cable channels through its platform Hulu + Live TV. That service maintained its 4.6 million customers that it had at the end of Disney’s fiscal fourth quarter of 2023.
The average revenue-per-user (ARPU) generated by Hulu in the quarter was $12.29, up from the $12.11 the service created last quarter. Hulu + Live TV brought Disney an ARPU of $93.61, up 4% over the $90.08 that it had the previous quarter.
How Big is Hulu Compared to Its Peers?
When judged against its competitors, Hulu is still in the midsized streaming service category. It’s not close to the 260.28M subscribers Netflix currently has, nor does it approach the 95.1M streaming customers Warner Bros. Discovery has between Max and discovery+.
Paramount+ has not reported its subscriber count for the fourth quarter of 2023 yet, but at the end of the third quarter it had 63M customers. That beats out Hulu, which now has to look over its shoulder at Peacock and its 30 million subscribers. Neither Apple TV+ nor Prime Video make their subscriber numbers public.
What Were Hulu’s Biggest Stories of the Quarter?
Hulu content is now found on Disney+, and first began streaming there in early December. Disney plans to complete the Disney+/Hulu one-app experience by March, but subscribers to both services can access Hulu content on Disney+ as part of a public beta test until then.
Comcast and Disney still have not closed the sale of Comcast’s 33% of Hulu to the Mouse House, but the process is well underway. Disney has officially paid $8.6 billion for that portion of Hulu already, but the sale won’t be complete until banking firms put a total valuation on Hulu as a company. If that valuation is determined to be more than $27.5 billion, Disney will have to cut Comcast another check.
One of the biggest news-makers for Hulu in coming months technically occurred during the current quarter, but it was a big deal nonetheless. Last week, Hulu announced that it had changed its user agreement to officially make password sharing a violation. Disney+ and ESPN+ quickly followed suit, and now giving a Hulu password to a friend or family member could result in subscribers losing access to their account.
On the brighter side, Hulu has a bona fide hit on its hands with “The Bear.” The cooking drama’s first season picked up a huge amount of Emmy and Golden Globe nominations, and it won 13 total awards across the two award ceremonies plus the Creative Arts Emmys. The second season of “The Bear” is likely to cash in even further on awards hardware, as it attracted even more critical acclaim than Season 1.
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