Disney continued to add subscribers to its three streaming services in the latest quarter, with Disney+ beating expectations thanks to 12 million new subscribers. Despite the impressive numbers, the company missed revenue expectations by nearly $1 billion, but the impending arrival of its ad-supported store and exclusive merchandise could help boost its future results.
By the end of fiscal year 2022, Disney+ is expected to add 12 million new subscribers, bringing its total subscriber count to 164.2 million. That beats initial projections by 3.5 million people and will likely please the company.
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While it still hasn't reached Netflix's subscriber base of 223.09 million, the streaming reports a higher total number of subscriptions than its rival when all three of Disney's streaming services are included: ESPN's subscribers rose from 22.8 million to 24.3 million, while Hulu's grew by one million to 47.2 million. That brings the total to 235.7 million subscribers (up from 221 million in the third quarter), which also beat the company's expected number of 233.8 million.
For the second time now, Disney has been more successful than Netflix as a whole, although Netflix has been receiving complaints that Disney inflates its numbers by counting a person as three subscribers if they have multiple subscriptions to Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN.
One expectation Disney missed was revenue. The $20.15 billion it brought in in the period ended Oct. 1 was up 9% from the same quarter a year earlier, but Wall Street was looking for revenue growth of 15% year-over-year to $21.3 billion.
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According to TechCrunch, Disney+ is testing a new service that will allow viewers to purchase Star Wars, Marvel, Disney Animation Studios, and Pixar shows from select movie, series, and short film pages.
Information source: techspot.com
