Disney+ added 12 million subscribers last quarter but still missed revenue expectations

[midian182]

In a nutshell: Disney continued adding subscribers to its three services during the last quarter, with Disney+ beating expectations thanks to the 12 million new subs it attracted. Despite the impressive figures, the company missed revenue expectations by almost $1 billion, but the imminent arrival of the ad-supported tier and exclusive merchandise store could help boost its future bottom lines.

For the final quarter of its 2022 fiscal year, Disney+ added 12 million new subscribers, pushing its total number of subs up to 164.2 million. The company will likely be pleased with the size of that increase, given it was only expected to add 9.5 million new subscribers.

Disney+ still has a long way to go before reaching Netflix and its 223.09 million subs, but the company boasts a higher total number of subscriptions than its rival when counting all three Disney streaming services. ESPN subscribers jumped from 22.8 million to 24.3 million, while Hulu was up one million to 47.2 million. That brings the overall total to 235.7 million, up from 221 million in the third quarter. It also beat the company's expected figure of 233.8 million.

This is the second quarter in a row where Disney recorded higher overall numbers than Netflix, though the latter has argued that Disney conflates subscriptions with subscribers—as in, one person could be counted as three subscribers if they have subscriptions to Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN.

One expectation Disney did miss was revenue. The $20.15 billion it brought in during the period ending October 1 was up 9% compared to the same quarter a year earlier, but Wall Street was looking for a 15% year-on-year revenue increase to $21.3 billion.

On December 8, Disney+ launches its ad-supported tier, which lowers the subscription price from $10.99 per month to $7.99. It will also offer packages combining Disney+, ESPN, and Hulu with ads. Netflix's ad-supported tier started last week and costs $7 per month.

Disney+ is also testing a new feature that allows subscribers to purchase Star Wars, Marvel, Disney Animation Studios, and Pixar merchandise directly from the detail pages of select movies, series and shorts, writes TechCrunch.

Disney+ continues to attract subscribers with original content such as Andor, She-Hulk, and more. Next year will see more new Star Wars and Marvel shows, and the service will become the international home for new episodes of Doctor Who.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/96599-disney-added-12-million-subscribers-last-quarter-but.html

 

[Uncle Al]

With all the jumping around, price increases, and program changes it might be a good time to do another analysis of all the streaming services to see which is really the best deal ......

 

[emmzo]

Ad supported tier looks to me like the dumbest idea. Time will tell if people would want to pay a little less, but see commercials. Because you know, sooner or later, commercials will take over most of the time, while you're still paying.

 

[Ohnooze]

I canceled Disney last year and I'm not looking back. I just can't stand that they think it's their responsibility convert children to woke world views. Just my opinion but I think all corporations need to stay in their lane. But hey, to each his own....

 

[defaultluser]

I just cant be bothered upgrading next month -- there are only a handful of series keeping me here

 

[Neatfeatguy]

Thankfully I don't pay for Disney+. It hasn't really been worth the cost.

I've always been a fan of Star Wars (the original trilogy, The Clone Wars animated series [though I never did watch the last season put out by Disney] and a handful of Star Wars games) so I've been trying to watch the episodic series they've been putting out and they're all pretty much trash.

Boba Fett sucks.
Obi Wan sucks.
Mandalorian - first season was good, the second season I didn't like.
Andor - this one is good. It feels more in line with the original trilogy and I've been enjoying every episode. I wish they had all the series done this well.

I was also a big fan of the Marvel series up until the Ragnarok movie. Once they hit this point they've been trying hard to make all other movies try to be a witty addition to the franchise, like they're all wannabe Guardian of the Galaxy movies. The bright colors, the forced humor, the woke methodology they're trying to incorporate into every movie is just bad and very off putting.

The Marvel episodic shows aren't very good, either, like most of the Star Wars ones:
Wandavision - so boring and uninteresting. I had to watch the first episode in 3 different sittings because it was so bad. I struggled to get through it and the rest of the episodes didn't get any better.
Ms Marvel - gag me with a spoon.
Hawkeye - was okay
Moon Knight - was decent, better than Hawkeye. I'd be willing to give Moon Knight a chance if Disney were to make a second season, but as far as I know they won't do a second season when I last looked into it.
She Hulk - this sucks. Woke is a word I hate using, but holy hel|. I wasn't impressed with Daredevil's appearance. He moved like Spider-Man and seemed to have unlimited stamina as he ran, jumped dove off the parking ramp, dodged and pretty much countered everything she hulk threw at him. I don't have faith that Disney will do Daredevil justice to the Netflix episodes.
Loki - I thought was the best of the shows.

Hands down, though, I'd have to say one of the best cartoons out there is on Disney+: Phineas and Ferb. I just wish you could find all the episodes on DVD/Blu-Ray so I could have them in my own collection and not need to stream them. My 9 year old and I watch episodes of it now and again, even though we've both seen them all (and all the movies) multiple times over the past few years. This show alone is almost worth getting a sub to Disney+.

 

[punctualturn]

All these services will keep increasing prices until the only option are the high seas...yaaarrrrr

 

[wiyosaya]

Leave it to Wall Street to think that Disney+ would meet that outrageously high target of 15% revenue increase year-over-year. IMO, Wall Street is out-of-touch with reality if they think that any company would meet that, and if, by chance, they did, would sustain that rate of growth. By investment standards, 15% is astronomical.

Thankfully I don't pay for Disney+. It hasn't really been worth the cost.

I've always been a fan of Star Wars (the original trilogy, The Clone Wars animated series [though I never did watch the last season put out by Disney] and a handful of Star Wars games) so I've been trying to watch the episodic series they've been putting out and they're all pretty much trash.

Well, if you enjoyed The Clone Wars, the last season is quite good, IMO, but very different from the final season as done by Netflix. Another series you might also like is "The Bad Batch" which has a very Clone Wars like feel to it, IMO. And at least as I saw it, "The Bad Batch" has nothing "woke" (by my assumption of what you mean by "woke") in it.

I just wish you could find all the episodes on DVD/Blu-Ray so I could have them in my own collection

Good luck with that. Personally, I think it highly unlikely that Disney will release anything that they have added solely to Disney+ to any type of physical media unless Disney+ completely fails. I think Disney's justification for not releasing it is that it will take subscribers away from Disney+.

For the record, I'd like to see DVD/BR releases as well, but I'm not a Disney+ subscriber. I did subscribe for a month about a year ago, and I will do the same again in the not-too-distant future, but Disney+ is only getting a month or two's subscription fees from me rather than the arguably higher amount of money for multiple DVD/BR releases.

I canceled Disney last year and I'm not looking back. I just can't stand that they think it's their responsibility convert children to woke world views. Just my opinion but I think all corporations need to stay in their lane. But hey, to each his own....

Yep to each his own, and this bogeyman has, apparently, spurred far-right media attempts to "counter" Disney. I wonder what children will be doing as a result of that?

 

[Ohnooze]

Yep to each his own, and this bogeyman has, apparently, spurred far-right media attempts to "counter" Disney. I wonder what children will be doing as a result of that?

I'm going to leave that alone..lol

 

[Bl00dyMinded]

Yeah I just pirate their shows I want to see and add it to my plex. I ain't giving Disney my money.

 

[psycros]

Leave it to Wall Street to think that Disney+ would meet that outrageously high target of 15% revenue increase year-over-year. IMO, Wall Street is out-of-touch with reality if they think that any company would meet that, and if, by chance, they did, would sustain that rate of growth. By investment standards, 15% is astronomical.

Well, if you enjoyed The Clone Wars, the last season is quite good, IMO, but very different from the final season as done by Netflix. Another series you might also like is "The Bad Batch" which has a very Clone Wars like feel to it, IMO. And at least as I saw it, "The Bad Batch" has nothing "woke" (by my assumption of what you mean by "woke") in it.

Good luck with that. Personally, I think it highly unlikely that Disney will release anything that they have added solely to Disney+ to any type of physical media unless Disney+ completely fails. I think Disney's justification for not releasing it is that it will take subscribers away from Disney+.

For the record, I'd like to see DVD/BR releases as well, but I'm not a Disney+ subscriber. I did subscribe for a month about a year ago, and I will do the same again in the not-too-distant future, but Disney+ is only getting a month or two's subscription fees from me rather than the arguably higher amount of money for multiple DVD/BR releases.

Yep to each his own, and this bogeyman has, apparently, spurred far-right media attempts to "counter" Disney. I wonder what children will be doing as a result of that?

What you call a bogeyman the far left calls the majority opinion. You can't have it both ways.

 

[Mr Majestyk]

Take away Andor and a few other SW's shows and there's nothing worth forking out $13-14 p/m (Australia) for.

 

[captaincranky]

Yep to each his own, and this bogeyman has, apparently, spurred far-right media attempts to "counter" Disney. I wonder what children will be doing as a result of that?

Speaking as someone who almost exclusively watches CBS prime time, the shows with girl on girl action get renewed, while guy on guy action seems to get canceled.

I think most of the "woke" crowd's problems, (sorry "issues"), could be solved easily by new construction having three bathrooms Two with the typical "boy", "girl" markings, and on door number three, just a "?"

Oddly "woke" isn't a new concept. Like they used to say in Sparta, "oil up my squire".

 

[captaincranky]

Let's face facts kidz, no matter how many subscribers Disney has, or how much money they make, it will never, ever, be enough.