Disney+ Closes In On 100 Million Subscribers
- Paul Thurrott
- Feb 12, 2021
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As part of its quarterly earnings report, Disney revealed this week that Disney+ now has 94.9 million subscribers. As you may recall, Disney once projected that the service would have been 60 million and 90 million subscribers by 2024.
Disney reported that it earned $29 million in net income on revenues of $16.25 billion for the quarter ending January 2, 2021.
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“We believe the strategic actions we’re taking to transform our Company will fuel our growth and enhance shareholder value, as demonstrated by the incredible strides we’ve made in our [Direct To Consumer] business, reaching more than 146 million total paid subscriptions across our streaming services at the end of the quarter,” Disney CEO Bob Chapek said. “We’re confident that, with our robust pipeline of exceptional, high-quality content and the upcoming launch of our new Star-branded international general entertainment offering, we are well-positioned to achieve even greater success going forward.”
At almost 100 million subscribers, Disney+, which launched in November 2019, is now roughly half the size of Netflix, which has a subscriber base of 204 million. But Disney also owns Hulu, with 39.4 million subscribers, and ESPN+, with 12.1 million. So as Mr. Chapek noted, the total subscriber base at Disney is about 146 million.
But the growth at Disney+ has been staggering. The service saw 10 million sign-ups on its first day and had 26.5 million subscribers by the end of its first quarter. It hit 33.5 million, 57.5 million, and 73.7 million subscribers, respectively, in the next three quarters. In December, Disney revealed that the number had jumped to 86.6 million.
Conversation 7 comments
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<blockquote><em><a href="#612928">In reply to dftf:</a></em></blockquote><p>I use most streaming services like that. I am a Star Trek fan and I basically wait until the season of Discovery is over, then subscribe to the CBS services for a month and watch the season over the 30 days. I dumped Disney after Mando and the Right Stuff…not much else on there for me. Mando is kind of just OK to me. I am no rush to sign up again.</p>