NEWS: Disney+ Sees INCREASE in Subscribers

It’s been a big year for Disney’s streaming services, especially now that Hulu and Disney+ merged into one app. Disney hoped to create a streamlined viewing experience for subscribers who choose to bundle the two services.

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Disney has also started cracking down on account sharing with its streaming services. So have these two things affected Disney’s streaming subscriber numbers and revenue?

Disney recently released its Q2 2024 earnings report and held its earnings call. One of the key topics of discussion was streaming, especially as this is Disney CEO Bob Iger’s number one priority. The company has been on track to reach profitability by the fourth quarter of 2024. During the earnings call, we learned how that was going.

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During the previous earnings call for the first quarter, Disney reported a loss in subscribers for Disney+. By the end of that time frame, Disney+ Core had 111.3 million subscribers and Disney+ Hotstar had 38.3 million. In the second quarter, Disney+ Core had 117.6 million subscribers and Disney+ Hotstar had 36 million subscribers. Hulu showed 50.2 million subscribers this quarter compared to 49.7 million last quarter.

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In terms of the financial standing of Disney’s direct-to-consumer business as a whole (which includes Disney+, Disney+ Hotstar, and Hulu), here’s a look at the revenues and operating losses for the second quarter of 2024:

Disney+ had an increase in revenue internationally and domestically (excluding Hotstar) of 6%. This quarter saw $7.28 million compared to $6.84 million last quarter. Hotstar was down by 45% at $0.7 million this quarter and $1.28 million last quarter. Hulu streaming was down 4% at $11.84 million this quarter compared to $12.29 million last quarter.

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The decrease in revenue for Hulu is attributed to lower advertising revenue. However, Hulu’s Line TV made up for this with an increase in retail pricing from $93.61 to $95.01.

Disney+ average revenue per paid subscriber decreased from $8.15 to $8, but this loss was offset by increases in retail pricing. Internationally (excluding Hotstar) Disney+ saw an increase in monthly revenue per paid subscriber from $5.91 to $6.66 because of increased retail pricing and a lower mix of subscribers to promotional offerings.

©Hulu

Overall, streaming numbers are up and looking good for Disney. It seems that the updates to Disney+ and Hulu may be helping the direct-to-consumer division of the company.

Check back with AllEars again soon for more Disney news and updates.