Disney+ has lost more than 1 million subscribers after a significant price hike went into effect in October. The number of total subscribers in the US, Canada, and globally (excluding Disney+ Hotstar in India) fell from 112.6 million to 111.3 million.
Looking ahead, Disney said it is projecting it will add between 5.5 million and 6 million new subscribers by the end of March 2024.
Disney+ Hotstar added 700,000 subscribers during the last quarter (October-December), rising from 37.6 million to 38.3 million. Together, Disney+ and Disney+ Hotstar subscribers amounted to 149.6 million by the end of December 2023. Disney’s Hulu streaming service, meanwhile, added 1.2 million subscribers to rise to 45.1 million.
For the quarter, Disney trimmed its streaming losses to $300 million and said it expects its streaming division to be profitable by the end of its current financial year.
Looking ahead, Disney will seek to improve revenue from Disney+ by cracking down on password-sharing, not unlike what Netflix did.
In 2023, Disney laid off thousands of people in a massive round of cuts that the company said were required to “return creativity to the center of the company, increase accountability, improve results, and ensure the quality of our content and experiences.”
In other big Disney news, the company is investing $1.5 billion into Epic Games to create a “persistent universe” in Fortnite featuring Disney characters.
