Entertainment

Disney streaming services now match Netflix subscriber numbers

Disney released its full-year and fourth-quarter earnings report.

by
Joe Rice-Jones
November 9, 2022

Image: KnowTechie

Disney’s combined streaming services now rival Netflix’s subscriber count.

That’s the official word from the House of Mouse’s full-year and fourth-quarter earnings report. The report shows 12.1 million new Disney+ subscribers joined in the last few months.

Hulu and ESPN+ also added new subscribers, with another 2.5 million between the two. That brings the company’s streaming services to a total of 236 million, 164 million of those from Disney+ alone.

That’s enough to surpass Netflix’s current subscriber count, which stood at 223 million during its latest earning report.

disney plus bundle with espn and hulu — Image: Disney

We have to wonder how many of those are paying customers. Other companies, like Verizon FiOS, have promotions for a certain number of months of Disney+ service when signing up for other services.

While that would be cause for celebration, the markets disagree. Disney’s stock dropped by 10% on the news, mainly from missing revenue projections by a billion dollars.

The costs of running multiple streaming services are also mounting up. Disney lost $1.5 billion for the quarter, almost double the loss from the previous quarter.

That’s down to production and technology costs increasing and also an increased marketing budget.

All streaming services are feeling the pinch of increased costs. Spotify’s CEO has warned of a future subscription price increase, possibly to match rivals Apple Music and YouTube Family.

Streaming losses for Disney will likely narrow going forward, buoyed up by the introduction of its new Disney+ ad-supported tier later this year.

The service is launching its ad-supported subscription tier on December 8. It will cost $8 a month. At that time, the ad-free tier of Disney+ will increase to $11 per month.

If you don’t want to pay the increased price (especially after Andor is over), you can easily cancel your subscription to Disney+.

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