Disney Subscribers Surpass Netflix Subscribers

Based on subscriber count, Disney has surpassed the largest streamer of them all thanks to its three streaming services: Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu.

Disney reported having 221.1 million total paid customers across all of its streaming services during the third quarter of its fiscal year 2022. These include Hulu (SVOD just and Live TV + SVOD), Disney+, Disney+ Hotstar, ESPN+, and Hulu. Disney now has more paying subscribers than Netflix, which had 220.7 million at the end of the second quarter of the streaming behemoth.Disney+ gained 14.4 million during the third quarter of their fiscal year.

We had a great quarter thanks to our top-notch creative and business teams, which also drove amazing results at our domestic theme parks, large gains in live sports viewership, and strong subscription growth at our streaming services. We now have 221 million total subscriptions across our streaming products, according to Bob Chapek, CEO of The Walt Disney Company, in a news release dated August 10, 2022. This is due to the addition of 14.4 million Disney+ customers in the third fiscal quarter.

The company is "continuing to reinvent entertainment as we approach our second century" with "compelling new storytelling across our multiple channels and unique immersive physical experiences that exceed visitor expectations," Chapek continued.

Breakdown by streaming service

*Differences in totals are due to rounding

Third quarter highlights

Disney published the following quarterly highlights for the period ending July 2, 2022, in addition to subscription growth:

1. The revenue was $21.5 billion, up 26% over the previous year.
2. There was a 53% rise in net income from continuing operations to $1.41 billion.
3. The diluted earnings per share from continuing operations increased by 54% to $0.77 from the prior year.
4. Revenue from direct sales to consumers were $5.1 billion, up 19% over the previous year.
5. Due to higher operating losses at Disney+ and ESPN+ and lower operating profits at Hulu, Disney reported an operating loss of $1.1 billion in the direct-to-consumer sector.
6. Disney attributed the loss at Disney+ to higher programming and production, technology and marketing costs which were offset, in part, by subscription and advertising revenue.
7. New subscribers and increased retail prices contributed to increased subscription revenue.
8. Higher programming, production, and marketing costs at Hulu were blamed for the decline, which was somewhat offset by an increase in subscription revenue.
9. Higher costs for the sports content on ESPN+ were compensated by an increase in subscriber revenue.

Chapek discussed Disney+, which debuted in November 2019, a few months before the COVID outbreak, on the company's earnings call.

Disney+ is still a new company, and we are always learning more about the service's capacity to draw new customers to our top-performing franchises.

For instance, thanks to the episodic format that allows us to explore new characters and genres, we have seen each new Disney+ original Marvel series attract incremental viewership and new subscribers who hadn't previously engaged with Marvel content on the service, Chapek said. This has happened in addition to driving engagement among the tens of millions of existing Marvel fans.

Expanding the fan base has enormous value since the new audience will be able to experience Marvel in all of our other services, including gaming, consumer goods, and theme parks.

Future Disney+ content releases include Marvel's She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Lucasfilm's Andor, and Disney's Hocus Pocus 2. Additionally, Chapek noted that the second annual Disney+ Day will be celebrated on September 8 with activations throughout our synergy machine.

Subspace Take

Disney has captivated audiences with classic Disney content as well as well-known properties like Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars since its introduction in 2019.

Their capacity to create and acquire fresh, unique content has contributed to the steady expansion of their subscriber base.

Disney's growth was undoubtedly aided by the COVID spike, but their consistently high-caliber content has allowed them to overtake even the biggest streamer, Netflix.

They haven't suffered at all from raising their costs and getting rid of the free trials, and by adding an ad-supported tier, they will be able to reach even more people.