Disney+ Only Adds 2 Million New Subscribers, Average Monthly Revenue Falls
John F. Trent
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The Walt Disney Company released their Q4 earning report with that claims their flagship streaming service Disney+ only added a little over 2 million subscribers.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 29: (L-R) Chairman of Disney Studios Content Alan Bergman, Producer, President of Marvel Studios and Chief Creative Officer of Marvel Kevin Feige, and CEO of The Walt Disney Company Bob Chapek attend the Black Widow World Premiere Fan Event at Dolby Theatre on June 29, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)
In their report, Disney noted that their Disney+ subscriber count hit 118.1 million subscribers as of October 2nd.
That was only an increase of 2.1 million from their Q3 earning report, where they reported they had a total of 116 million subscribers.
Not only did they only add 2.1 million subscribers, but their average monthly revenue per paid subscriber decreased to $4.12 from $4.16.
They did increase subscribers by 44.4 million compared to October 3, 2020. That’s a 60% increase.
Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) in Marvel Studios’ BLACK WIDOW, in theaters and on Disney+ with Premier Access. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. ©Marvel Studios 2021. All Rights Reserved.
Disney doesn’t specifically address the decrease in revenue per subscriber from quarter to quarter, but they do explain why it decreased from the prior-year quarter.
They stated, “The average monthly revenue per paid subscriber for Disney+ decreased from $4.52 to $4.12 due to a higher mix of Disney+ Hotstar subscribers in the current quarter compared to the prior-year quarter.”
Dwayne Johnson is Frank Wolff in Disney’s JUNGLE CRUISE. Photo by Frank Masi. © 2021 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Their total Direct-to-Consumer revenue did increase 38% from the prior-year quarter. They brought in $4.5 billion compared to $3.3 billion.
While their revenue increased, their operating loss also increased as well from the prior-year quarter. It increased to $630 million from $374 million.
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Disney explained the increase stating, “The increase in operating loss was due to higher losses at Disney+, and to a lesser extent, ESPN+, partially offset by improved results at Hulu.”
They further stated, “The higher loss at Disney+ was due to higher programming and production, marketing and technology costs, partially offset by increases in subscription and Premier Access revenues. Higher subscription revenue reflected subscriber growth and increases in retail pricing. Higher Premier Access revenue was due to two releases in the current quarter, Black Widow and Jungle Cruise, compared to one release in the prior-year quarter, Mulan. The increases in costs and subscribers reflected the ongoing expansion of Disney+.”
Maul in STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS, exclusively on Disney+
In contrast, Netflix reported back in October as part of their Q3 report that they added 4.4 million new paid subscribers bringing their total paid subscribers to 213.56 million.
They do note that “the APAC region was our largest contributor to membership growth with 2.2m paid net adds (half of total paid net adds) as we are continuing to improve our service in this region.
They also reported, “In Q3, we grew revenue 16% year over year to $7.5 billion, while operating income rose 33% vs. the prior year quarter to $1.8 billion.
“Revenue growth in Q3 was driven by a 9% and 7% increase in average paid streaming memberships and ARM, respectively,” Netflix stated.
RED NOTICE – (L-R) RYAN REYNOLDS, GAL GADOT and DWAYNE ‘THE ROCK’ JOHNSON STAR IN NETFLIX’S RED NOTICE RELEASING NOVEMBER 12, 2021. WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY RAWSON MARSHALL THURBER. Cr: Frank Masi/NETFLIX © 2021
What do you make of The Walt Disney’s Q4 reporting?
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