The Walt Disney Company had forecast in 2020 that it would have approximately 260 million subscribers by 2024. Unparalleled growth by the streaming service in its early days, partially powered by a red-hot The Mandalorian series and partially powered by a sweetheart deal with Verizon, had investors drooling over Disney stock. But the prior quarter missed subscriber projections significantly, even as the new HotStar service in India launched. Disney saw only 12 million new subscribers, making it less likely that they would catch Netflix by 2024.
Now, however, it may be time to worry that Disney+ subscriber growth is crashing.
LA Times: Disney+ Adds Only 2 Million Subscribers
Buried a bit in the quarterly revenue report by The Walt Disney Company yesterday (and for good reason), the company only managed to increase Disney+ subscribers by 2 million in the most recent quarter. That is a massive drop in growth rates over two quarters, and represents a near halt in increase. At this rate, Disney will be stuck forever at half of Netflix’s subscriber amount. Now we may have insight into why rumors have abounded that there is friction between the top executives of Disney and studio heads like Kathleen Kennedy and Kevin Feige. CEO Bob Chapek reportedly wants more Luke Skywalker, more Ironman, and less of the rest.
Considering Disney’s stock is essentially driven at this point by Disney+ growth, the corrections are likely already underway behind the scenes.
Meanwhile, ESPN underperfomed and Hulu did quite well. A full report on Disney+ and other streaming services by Disney can be found in the Q4 Earnings Report:
Let us know in the comments below why you feel Disney+ growth has slowed so significantly.
