Over the first three months of 2023, Disney Plus lost another 4 million subscribers — its second consecutive quarterly decline.
Per Variety, Q2 was especially rocky considering company-wide layoffs, the incessant existence of Florida Governor Rick DeSantis, and the ongoing writers’ strike. Plus, viewership was down for some of Disney’s most popular shows, like the third season of The Mandalorian.
Disney Plus ended Q2 with 157.8 million subscribers, compared with Wall Street’s estimate of 163.17 million. Across the US and Canada, Disney Plus shed about 300,000 subscribers and added nearly 1 million in international markets.
The company reported that its total drop in subscriptions was driven largely by a sequential decline of 4.6 million at Disney Plus Hotstar, a version of the streaming service offered in portions of Southeast Asia and across India. In 2022, Disney lost streaming rights to cricket matches under the Indian Premier League, so the company expected lower growth for that region. Meanwhile, Hulu gained approximately 200,000 new subscribers in Q2, while ESPN Plus boosted subs by 400,000.
Ultimately, Disney’s revenue did surpass Wall Street estimates because of theme park earnings, and the company at least managed to reduce its streaming-related losses by $400 million, a 26% year-over-year reduction.
During Wednesday’s earnings call, returning Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that Hulu content will be available on Disney Plus later this year, describing the content library as a “one-app experience.” CFO Christine McCarthy said on the call that Disney “will be removing certain content from our streaming platforms,” a move that aligns with “strategic changes in our approach to content curation.” She said removing the content will result in a Q3 writedown of $1.5–$1.8 billion.
McCarthy explained that, going forward, Disney intends to “produce lower volumes of content in alignment with this strategic shift.” That’s probably the closest to an admission of superhero fatigue that we’re ever going to get from Disney.
