Disney+ surpassed 100 million subscribers in just 16 months

[Shawn Knight]

The big picture: Well, that didn’t take long. The Walt Disney Company has managed to eclipse the 100 million paid subscriber mark with Disney+ less than a year and a half after launching the over-the-top streaming platform. With a strong catalog and renewed motivation, the platform's potential is sky high.

Disney CEO Bob Chapek shared the milestone this week during the company’s annual shareholders meeting, which is being held virtually this year due to the pandemic.

Chapek said the platform’s success has inspired them to be even more ambitious, and to significantly increase their investment in the development of high-quality content.

Much like Netflix, which revealed in January that it plans to release at least one new movie every week in 2021, Disney is also going on the offensive. Chapek said they have set a target of 100+ new titles per year, which will include Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, Disney Animation and Disney Live Action programming.

Disney last shared subscriber figures in February as part of its quarterly earnings report. At that time, there were 94.9 million paying Disney+ subscribers. Disney didn’t say if a particular show or campaign helped push it past the 100 million subscriber milestone, but if we had to guess, new shows like WandaVision likely helped the cause.

Images courtesy Postmodern Studio, Daniel Suarez Gonzenbach

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/88882-disney-surpassed-100-million-subscribers-16-months.html

 

[mctommy]

How many of those are from the Verizon promo?

I got on the pre-release deal for $150 for 3 years of Disney+ so it's costing me less than a subway per month and I'm ok with that.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

Those first 3 episodes for Wandavision were really hard to get through. It took me about a week to get through the first episode alone. I'd watch a few minutes here and there. It was so bad I almost gave up on the series.

Thankfully I can just log on my brother's account and catch the show. I'm not paying more for something else I'll rarely use. The channel doesn't have anything that interests me enough to pay for a subscription.

I still don't think the Mandalorian or Wandavision can hold a candle to The Punisher and Daredevil series on Netflix. Too bad Disney cut the cord to those series.....it would have been nice to see one more season on Daredevil and The Punisher, I think both series had a bit more to give before calling it quits.

 

[Kosmoz]

I love biased articles like these... amazing.

How about the huge number of people that canceled Disney+ in protest for ruining Star Wars and all the other **** they done lately?

I guess I'll keep getting my news from independent sources, not shill articles.

 

[terzaerian]

I love biased articles like these... amazing.

How about the huge number of people that canceled Disney+ in protest for ruining Star Wars and all the other **** they done lately?

I guess I'll keep getting my news from independent sources, not shill articles.

Yes, I've also noticed these articles seem conspicuously timed.

 

[mctommy]

I love biased articles like these... amazing.

How about the huge number of people that canceled Disney+ in protest for ruining Star Wars and all the other **** they done lately?

I guess I'll keep getting my news from independent sources, not shill articles.

I don't see this article as bias or shill article. Maybe a lack of further investigative journalism in diving deeper on the breakdown of these 100 million subscribers (retail vs. wholesale) or the number of people who canceled due to whatever protest. At the end of the day, Disney reported 100 million subscribers, OP made an article about such topic. [The End]

 

[JKnight]

How long before Disney starts raising prices?

 

[hahahanoobs]

How long before Disney starts raising prices?

March 26.

 

[scavengerspc]

And of course, $12 a month for Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu has nothing to do with the success.
It's the new best deal in streaming.

March 26.

Yes by $1 a month though.

 

[Kosmoz]

I don't see this article as bias or shill article. Maybe a lack of further investigative journalism in diving deeper on the breakdown of these 100 million subscribers (retail vs. wholesale) or the number of people who canceled due to whatever protest. At the end of the day, Disney reported 100 million subscribers, OP made an article about such topic. [The End]

So you see no bias with them reporting about "oh Disney is doing so good", but completely ignoring the issues in that past months (year?) that Disney has/or created?

No, there's no bias there at all. /s
Right... well that's the definition of bias actually.

 

[Austinturner]

So you see no bias with them reporting about "oh Disney is doing so good", but completely ignoring the issues in that past months (year?) that Disney has/or created?

No, there's no bias there at all. /s
Right... well that's the definition of bias actually.

There isn’t bias, there is no analysis or investigation to be biased in, its not journalism either. I mean the “article” is basically four short paragraphs to convey a couple of basic figures Disney has shared with the market.

 

[Adi6293]

I for one cancelled my subscription after the recent bonanza with Star Wars and Mandalorian #FireKathleenKennedy

 

[scavengerspc]

I for one cancelled my subscription after the recent bonanza with Star Wars and Mandalorian #FireKathleenKennedy

Do you mean Carano? Because besides her Simps I can't find many people that thought she brought much to the table.

And Kennedy is in a no-win situation with her position so the bottom line has to be.....The bottom line. She is aces there.

 

[torchyear]

Publishing the Fox Studios back catalogue, along with opening the adult-oriented Star subchannel, probably helped their numbers too.

 

[Adi6293]

Do you mean Carano? Because besides her Simps I can't find many people that thought she brought much to the table.

And Kennedy is in a no-win situation with her position so the bottom line has to be.....The bottom line. She is aces there.

Just to make this clean I don't even watch Star Wars and only watched 3 episodes of Mandalorian and thought it was boring but I just this the way that situation was handled was terrible, Disney as a whole is a scummy company with double standards anyway

 

[Kosmoz]

There isn’t bias, there is no analysis or investigation to be biased in, its not journalism either. I mean the “article” is basically four short paragraphs to convey a couple of basic figures Disney has shared with the market.

So why don't they make an "article" to "convey" the issues with Disney too? Not just the (apparently) positive part?

I don't care how you spin the words game, bias not bias, shill no shill, call it "intentional amnesia of fair reporting of both the good and the bad sides of Disney" - I'm not fooled by Disney or by any kind of media publication that only shows one side of the story...

I have nothing more to say. It's a waste of my time to continue this discussion.

 

[scavengerspc]

Just to make this clean I don't even watch Star Wars and only watched 3 episodes of Mandalorian and thought it was boring but I just this the way that situation was handled was terrible, Disney as a whole is a scummy company with double standards anyway

Yeah, Disney's soft fuzziness is a front and has been for years. I was reading last week that The Mandalorian was the number 1 streaming show. It has 16 episodes to 195 for the Office (former #1) but beat it so that got me curious so I will probably be taking a crash course soon.

 

[toooooot]

The more I know about Disney the less I wanna give them anything.
And I dont like the direction movie and tv show industry is heading.
I ve noticed I dont like a lot of new shows and movies.
I feel bored, annoyed and even angry sometimes when watching them.
And I forget 99% of such content because of how shallow and lacking
story characters and overall quality. My latest hobby has become reading reviews on IMDB for these terrible shows instead of watching them. I recommend StarTrek Discovery for one thing. It has best wrecking reviews for this horrendous show.
I re watched older movies more times than I watched new things in the last few years.

 

[mctommy]

So why don't they make an "article" to "convey" the issues with Disney too? Not just the (apparently) positive part?

I don't care how you spin the words game, bias not bias, shill no shill, call it "intentional amnesia of fair reporting of both the good and the bad sides of Disney" - I'm not fooled by Disney or by any kind of media publication that only shows one side of the story...

I have nothing more to say. It's a waste of my time to continue this discussion.

It's a waste of time for you to expect that all articles will present the good and the bad and the ugly. Any company, not just Disney, will minimize any sort of talk of the bad and the ugly.

 

[Michiel]

I love biased articles like these... amazing.

How about the huge number of people that canceled Disney+ in protest for ruining Star Wars and all the other **** they done lately?

I guess I'll keep getting my news from independent sources, not shill articles.

While I agree with the sentiment, the fact is that the number of people that cancelled is not huge, but small, compared to the amount of people signing up, or else there wouldn't be massive growth. It's simple really.

 

[Michiel]

The more I know about Disney the less I wanna give them anything.
And I dont like the direction movie and tv show industry is heading.
I ve noticed I dont like a lot of new shows and movies.
I feel bored, annoyed and even angry sometimes when watching them.
And I forget 99% of such content because of how shallow and lacking
story characters and overall quality. My latest hobby has become reading reviews on IMDB for these terrible shows instead of watching them. I recommend StarTrek Discovery for one thing. It has best wrecking reviews for this horrendous show.
I re watched older movies more times than I watched new things in the last few years.

I recommend The Critical Drinker and RedLetterMedia youtube channels.

 

[Kosmoz]

While I agree with the sentiment, the fact is that the number of people that cancelled is not huge, but small, compared to the amount of people signing up, or else there wouldn't be massive growth. It's simple really.

Just wait for Mandalorian season 3 and when that fails then we will see if it's a small group or not.... I personally don't think it is small anymore. More and more people are waking up to their BS and saying NO.

 

[Michiel]

Just wait for Mandalorian season 3 and when that fails then we will see if it's a small group or not.... I personally don't think it is small anymore. More and more people are waking up to their BS and saying NO.

Well it's not about what you or I think. There's either growth or not. Currently there is. Whatever happens after Mandalorian S3 is anyone's guess. But in the end Disney is a lot more than just Star Wars.
But hey personally I feel Disney can crash and burn for all I care.

 

[Kosmoz]

Well it's not about what you or I think. There's either growth or not. Currently there is. Whatever happens after Mandalorian S3 is anyone's guess. But in the end Disney is a lot more than just Star Wars.
But hey personally I feel Disney can crash and burn for all I care.

I don't trust anything coming from them, financial reports or anything else... so I don't believe they are doing as well as they say, I think the reports are artificially inflated to make them look good. They lie, deceive, manipulate and push agendas too much for me to say: "oh wait, this time they are not lying". Nah, I don't trust 1 single word from them.

Yeah, they should crash and burn.

P.S. Don't forget the hemorrhaging they have with their theme parks...