You're going the wrong way: Disney+ sheds 4M subscribers in second consecutive quarterly...

[Shawn Knight]

What just happened? Disney+ finished the second quarter with four million fewer paid subscribers than it had at the end of the first quarter. The House of Mouse reported 157.8 million paying Disney+ subs as of April 1, down from 161.8 million in the trailing quarter. That's a loss of roughly 2.5 percent quarter over quarter and represents the second consecutive quarterly loss for the streaming service.

In the first quarter, Disney+ turned in its first ever decline as it finished with 2.4 million fewer subscribers than it had at the end of Q4.

Disney said some of the subscriber losses can be attributed to airing fewer Indian Premiere League matches.

Disney's other streaming services fared better. ESPN+ added 400,000 subscribers in the second quarter to end up at 25.3 million subscribers, and Hulu picked up 200,000 users which pushed its total to 48.2 million.

On the earnings side, Disney reported revenue of $21.82 billion for the second quarter – up 13 percent compared to the same period a year earlier. Diluted earnings per share increased to $0.69 from $0.26 in the year-ago quarter.

During the company's earnings call, CEO Bob Iger announced plans to roll Hulu content into Disney+ to create a "one-app experience." The merger will happen sometime later this year starting in the US, but both apps will also continue to be available as standalone offerings. It sounds like more of a convenience thing, putting content from both services in one place for those that subscribe to both.

The decision could complicate ownership of Hulu (Comcast owns 33 percent of Hulu) but that's a discussion for a different day.

Iger also said another price hike is in the works for the ad-free Disney+ tier. As of writing, the ad-supported version of Disney+ is priced at $7.99 per month while the ad-free option commands $10.99 monthly. Iger said the price hike will better reflect the value of their content offerings and create a wider gap between the two tiers.

Addressing the four million subscriber loss, Iger described it as relatively small and said it led the company to believe they have "pricing elasticity."

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/98657-youre-going-wrong-way-disney-sheds-4m-subscribers.html

 

[Ohnooze]

Good. So long as they keep their emphasis on being woke I hope they crash and burn.
If they ever decide to concentrate more on quality and less on identity politics then maybe I would return. Until then they can stick it.

 

[Irata]

Could this be related to Disney giving away many free subscriptions to other service subscribers (e.g. cellphone) ?

Over here in Europe, Disney+ at €85/year is imo a much better deal than Netflix but that‘s because it comes bundled with Starz which afaik is Hulu. If it weren‘t for this, it really wouldn‘t be worth it for me.

 

[d5aqoep]

Good. So long as they keep their emphasis on being woke I hope they crash and burn.
If they ever decide to concentrate more on quality and less on identity politics then maybe I would return. Until then they can stick it.

I want a Michael Jaikishan movie with Indian fair looking actor and Madonna biography played by a Black lead. Come on Disney! make it happen! Don’t let Johnny Depp bad karma hit you.

 

[EdmondRC]

Could this be related to Disney giving away many free subscriptions to other service subscribers (e.g. cellphone) ?

Over here in Europe, Disney+ at €85/year is imo a much better deal than Netflix but that‘s because it comes bundled with Starz which afaik is Hulu. If it weren‘t for this, it really wouldn‘t be worth it for me.

It's related to terrible content ruining pre-existing franchises and attempting to push ideologies on families and children. Nothing else.

 

[EdmondRC]

Good. So long as they keep their emphasis on being woke I hope they crash and burn.
If they ever decide to concentrate more on quality and less on identity politics then maybe I would return. Until then they can stick it.

Disney is rotten from the inside out. It would take a complete overall of their entire org to root out enough employees to take it in a different direction. They have been laying off by the thousands, but not likely in an effort to change direction. It might be better if it burns down.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

The canceling of subscriptions from their woke antics will take a while to register. When I canceled there was like 8 months until my annual subscription so I didn't show up as lost on the books until I didn't renew.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Also, I'm sure fans love it, but there are only so many star wars shows a normal person can watch before they don't care any more.

 

[ferrellsl]

Disney, the Bud Light of entertainment. LoL!

 

[SirDigby]

Could this be related to Disney giving away many free subscriptions to other service subscribers (e.g. cellphone) ?

Over here in Europe, Disney+ at €85/year is imo a much better deal than Netflix but that‘s because it comes bundled with Starz which afaik is Hulu. If it weren‘t for this, it really wouldn‘t be worth it for me.

In the UK Disney+ is £7.99 a month for no ads, 4 sim streams, and has all the Hulu/Starz/Fox content so its way better than Netflix for now, £4.99 for ad tier 1 stream, or £15.99 for UHD 4 sim streams which is ludicrous.

Also, they've been bundling half & 1 year of free Disney+ with flagship Samsung phones and tablets, I haven't paid for it since June 2021 and I don't have to til Feb 2024, its mental. Definitely makes the phone bills easier to swallow....

 

[Dr Roboto]

I don't think the reduction in subscribers is a woke issue. I've been a subscriber to Disney+ since it started, and the reality is that there is just not enough new "compelling" content. At first it was great, with all the Star Wars, Marvel movies, and animated movies. It also helped my kids were a the right age for all of that content.

Now I just don't see interesting shows come out. I rarely watch it any more. I have watched the different Star Wars series that come out, but to be honest they are not that compelling. My kids get bored with them after the first episode and it is mostly just me watching them. There have been a few good things here and there, but it really has become very stale. Now it seems that Disney movies (Ant-man, etc.) are taking longer and longer to come to Disney+. There is a ton of content, but it is just boring IMHO (Natgeo, kids/tween shows). I would actually say the same about Netflix and Prime. They were great alternatives to cable when the came out a few years ago, but the excitement is gone and they are all just the same as cable now.

It was also a great deal when the price was so low it was almost free. If they raise the price any higher, then I am going to have to be one of those lost subscribers.

 

[p51d007]

No streaming for me so far.
Netflix "was" the end all be all for streaming until the studios figured they could cash out on that.
They pulled content from Netflix and now you "need" sometimes multiple streaming services if you
want to watch all of the movies you typically watched before.
Considering all of the "woke" nonsense coming from Hollyweirdo-land, the last movie I went to a sit down
theater to watch was Top Gun: Maverick. I'm comfortable with watching the "old stuff" on tv channels like
Grit, INSP, Antenna TV, MeTV etc along with whatever I already have recorded.

 

[SixTymes]

I guess the phrase is true.

 

[Irata]

In the UK Disney+ is £7.99 a month for no ads, 4 sim streams, and has all the Hulu/Starz/Fox content so its way better than Netflix for now, £4.99 for ad tier 1 stream, or £15.99 for UHD 4 sim streams which is ludicrous.

Also, they've been bundling half & 1 year of free Disney+ with flagship Samsung phones and tablets, I haven't paid for it since June 2021 and I don't have to til Feb 2024, its mental. Definitely makes the phone bills easier to swallow....

I paid for Disney+ from the start for Star Wars series. Was about ready to cancel it but then they added Starz which comes with tons of different series the wife and I like, so it‘s staying.


Netflix has little of interest to me. Used to watch it a lot but am not even motivated to turn it on to see what they have right now. Kiddo insists he‘s still watching it but am ready to cancel or switch to the cheapest ad free tier from the most expensive one.

 

[hwertz]

I have very little agreement with people who go around calling doing the right thing "woke". But, I must reluctantly agree, the recent Disney+ shows I've seen seemed to suffer from sloppy writing, it seems like they couldn't resist putting in little political messages that were just kind of tacked in and didn't have anything to do with the plot, and were not in line with the behavior of the characters otherwise either.

 

[captaincranky]

Iger also said another price hike is in the works for the ad-free Disney+ tier. As of writing, the ad-supported version of Disney+ is priced at $7.99 per month while the ad-free option commands $10.99 monthly. Iger said the price hike will better reflect the value of their content offerings and create a wider gap between the two tiers.

This paragraph, either as written, or quoted makes no sense whatsoever.

How on earth can you, "increase the separation", between the ad supported tier, by only raising the ad tier price? That would decrease the separation between ads and no ads..

So, who forgot to mention that "to increase price separation", the price of the premium subscription would have to be more as well?

 

[NewSparrow]

Not much compelling content also no offense I'm tried of so many girl boss movies out there and alienating existing fans of core franchises (I.e. star wars) into some woke agenda. That's in addition to poor writing (I.e She Hulk)..

 

[wiyosaya]

I want a Michael Jaikishan movie with Indian fair looking actor and Madonna biography played by a Black lead. Come on Disney! make it happen! Don’t let Johnny Depp bad karma hit you.

Maybe you could just use AI to make that and spare the rest of us the ....