Hey, Disney’s Streaming Business Only Lost Half-a-Billion Dollars This Time
The core Disney+ streaming service added 800,000 subscribers in the June quarter. Disney+ Hotstar went (far) in the other direction.
Hotstar, the name for Disney+ in India and other Southeast Asia countries, lost 12.5 million subs — or about a quarter of its remaining members — from April to June, which is Disney’s fiscal third quarter. Disney+ Hotstar’s membership (and thus, Disney+ overall) has been getting obliterated since Disney lost its IPL cricket rights.
More from IndieWire
While those numbers look horrible, the truth is that Hotstar barely brings in any money anyway. (Disney+ core’s average revenue per user is $6.58/month; Hotstar’s ARPU is just 59 cents.)
Adding in Hulu and ESPN+, Disney the company now has a grand total of 219.6 million global streaming subscriptions (note: not subscribers, due to bundling). Rival Netflix ended June with 238.39 million global paid subscribers — yes, it’s pulling away again.
Disney’s new subscriptions breakdown looks like this:
Disney+ (core): 105.7 million subscriptions
Disney+ Hotstar: 40.4 million subscriptions
Hulu: 48.3 million subscriptions (including Hulu + Live TV)
ESPN+: 25.2 million subscriptions
Disney’s direct-to-consumer (DTC) business lost $512 million in the June quarter. That’s actually quite a pleasant surprise — analysts expected a loss of $758 million. It’s also an improvement: Disney DTC lost $659 million in fiscal Q2 (January-March 2023) and $1 billion in fiscal Q1 (October-December 2022).
Executives had for long targeted 2024 as the year Disney+ would become profitable; CEO Bob Iger hasn’t really mentioned that as much lately, though. He’s got a plan to jumpstart the revenue, however. In the fall, Disney will again raise rates for several of its streaming plans.
And if that doesn’t work, just keep deleting content. The company recognized more than $2.4 billion in impairment charges from the removal of series and films from its streaming platforms. Those are typically low performers anyway.
The top performers on Disney+ in the June quarter, per Nielsen, were “The Mandalorian,” “Bluey,” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.”
Disney’s big theatrical release in the quarter was “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” (May 5), which grossed nearly $850 million at the global box office. The live-action “The Little Mermaid” (May 26) did OK, Pixar’s “Elemental” (June 16) was a dud; “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” (June 30) was the biggest flop of them all, though it only had one day in the reported quarter.
On Tuesday, Disney dove headfirst into a new business, sports betting, via a 10-year, $2 billion deal with Penn National. ESPN Bet is born, and Penn’s former partner Barstool Sports goes back to founder Dave Portnoy.
ESPN gets $1.5 billion and $500 million in warrants to purchase Penn shares. Penn gets the branding and reach of ESPN.
The Disney-owned sports brand came out of the deal with the “upper hand,” MoffettNathanson’s Robert Fishman wrote in a Wednesday note to clients (obtained by IndieWire) — “initially,” at least.
Best of IndieWire
Unsimulated Sex Scenes in Film: 'Nymphomaniac,' 'Brown Bunny,' 'Little Ashes,' and More
The Best LGBTQ Movies and TV Shows Streaming on Netflix Right Now
Sign up for Indiewire's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
