The latest report from Disney+ shows tough times at the streaming arm of the House of Mouse. That said, you probably can’t guess why Disney’s streaming service lost 2.4 million total subscribers for the Q1 2023 period (October – December 2022).
It’s not because of the $3 price hike for ad-free tier of Disney Pluswhich entered into force on December 8. Newly Reinstalled Disney CEO Bob Iger (opens in a new tab)during the earnings call, said the increase led to “a de minimis level [i.e. trivial] loss of submarines… that tells us something.”
It’s not because this window may have been soft on important new content. The biggest headlines this quarter were Andor and the back half of She-Hulk. The much watched Hocus Pocus 2 arrived on September 30.
Disney has lost subscribers to sports. Yes, Disney Plus has sports – but not in the US. The Walt Disney Company Q1 2023 report (opens in a new tab) published yesterday (8 February), shows a loss of 3.8 million subscribers to Disney Plus Hotstar, the version of the service served in India and parts of Southeast Asia. This is related to the service losing Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket matches.
In the US and Canada, even with a smooth start to the year, Disney Plus actually gained subscribers overall, around 200,000 of them in fact.
The bad news continued on the call, with Iger announcing that Disney would cut 7,000 jobs (3.2% of Disney’s worldwide staff).
Analysis: Disney Plus can apparently survive without new live-action Marvel and Star Wars shows
Disney Plus might not have suffered such huge losses if it had had a bigger headline-grabbing title, like The Mandalorian season 3 (due March 1), loki season 2 or the next Secret Invasion series starring Samuel L. Jackson and Emilia Clarke.
But the fact that Disney Plus subscriber numbers in the US and Canada actually increased during this window is impressive. We’re curious what the next quarter of Disney Plus will look like, because outside of Black Panther: Wakanda ForeverDisney Plus’s biggest recent gains are in smaller titles (Willow, The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder season 2, The Bad Batch season 2).
Winning the third season of Mando at the start of the last month of the next fiscal quarter should of course make up for that.