Disney+ hits 94.9M paid subscribers
Disney on Thursday announced that its Disney+ streaming platform has hit 94.9 million paid subscribers as of its first quarter of 2021.
Credit: Disney+
The entertainment giant made the announcement in its December quarter earnings report. Previously, in December 2020, Disney+ had 86.8 million paid subscribers, meaning the platform gained about 8 million customers in two months.
Initially, Disney+ set an initial subscriber goal of 60 to 90 million by 2024. Back in November 2020, the company already exceeded that goal with 73.7 million subscribers. Now, it expects to have about 230 million to 260 million by 2024.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Disney+ saw exceptional growth. At one point near the start of the global health crisis, the premium streaming service gained 16.5 million customers in just 10 days.
The strong subscriber growth in the year or so since launch has pushed the company heavily into the streaming industry. In October, Disney began to reorganize its business to shift primary focus to online streaming.
Apple, for its part, launched its Apple TV+ service a few weeks before Disney+. However, Apple's streaming service doesn't seem to have hit the same level of success.
The Cupertino company hasn't announced specific subscriber numbers for the service, but during its last earnings call, it reported that it has eclipsed the 600 million paid subscription mark across all of its services.
Credit: Disney+
The entertainment giant made the announcement in its December quarter earnings report. Previously, in December 2020, Disney+ had 86.8 million paid subscribers, meaning the platform gained about 8 million customers in two months.
Initially, Disney+ set an initial subscriber goal of 60 to 90 million by 2024. Back in November 2020, the company already exceeded that goal with 73.7 million subscribers. Now, it expects to have about 230 million to 260 million by 2024.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Disney+ saw exceptional growth. At one point near the start of the global health crisis, the premium streaming service gained 16.5 million customers in just 10 days.
The strong subscriber growth in the year or so since launch has pushed the company heavily into the streaming industry. In October, Disney began to reorganize its business to shift primary focus to online streaming.
Apple, for its part, launched its Apple TV+ service a few weeks before Disney+. However, Apple's streaming service doesn't seem to have hit the same level of success.
The Cupertino company hasn't announced specific subscriber numbers for the service, but during its last earnings call, it reported that it has eclipsed the 600 million paid subscription mark across all of its services.
Comments
Disney's Parks make about -----------------$16B/year.
Disney's Streaming Services make about--$16B/year.
Disney Studio's movies make about--------$ 9B/year.
The Streaming Services mentioned above includes Disney+'s 94 million subscribers at $7/month which is about $8B/year. But also includes Hulu and ESPN+ which, when combined, appear to generate the other $8B each year.
Overall I guess I'm impressed that Disney+ already makes that much money, considering it's been around for only a year. I'm sure Hulu and ESPN took longer to reach that level, combined.
I wonder how much people pay (in total) for their online media.
Internet cost
+ Cable / Satellite
+ Streaming 1
+ Streaming 2
+ Streaming 3
...
Cable: Cut a few months ago
Streaming 1: YouTube TV $65
Streaming 2: Prime ($12.99, but that includes Prime shipping, obviously)
Streaming 3: HBO Max (free with cell phone)
Streaming 4: Netflix ($13.99, just upgraded to premium for $17.99)
So that's $145 as of now. That amount was much higher. Before, I was paying $185 for FioS internet (75mps) and TV (3 TVs, DVR, HBO). I still had Netflix and Prime. So I was paying about $70 a month more than I am now. YouTube TV blows FioS cable away, my internet is much better, etc.
Certainly better than some I know ($250+ per month seems fairly common)
We pay around $55 for Comcast internet & IP phone (25/2 but more than meets our needs as we don't stream)
No cable / satellite - cut the cord 15 years ago and never looked back!
No streaming - We have around 50TB of movies and TV shows
Xfinity cellular is $30 for 5 lines (total, not each line) - shared 1 GB of data
Total cost is $85.00/mo Still too expensive in my mind, but not bad considering.
Disney Bundle (Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+): $18.99
Netflix: $13.99
specialty services: $9.99 and $7.99
Total: $51 a month.
By contrast, cable charges you $40 a month for basic cable. Now I also subscribe to YouTube TV. That jacks up the price to $115 a month. But that is still about the same as the better cable packages.
Caveat: similar to Amazon Prime, the specialty services really don't count. They contain content that I really can't get anywhere else so I would still have them even if I had cable. So truthfully that $115 a month drops to $97. And I am paying for YouTube TV mostly out of laziness/convenience. I could replace it with Plex Live TV or a similar service for as little as $5 a month (plus some hardware). So if I really wanted/needed to save money I would be at $40 a month.
Also, keep in mind: before they had to compete with cord-cutting cable once cost a lot more. I remember cable bills well over what Comcast, Xfinity and the rest are now charging.
It seems with the multiple streaming services people are still paying a pretty penny for their home entertainment. We bailed on cable when we realized 90%+ of the television we watched (which wasn't much) was broadcast. Add to that a nice home media server (Plex) with OTA DVR functionality and I still see little reason to stream... although I think my children would rather we had some of the streaming services as their classmates watch shows we do not have access to.
As far as total streaming costs, we pay $55/month for internet access (something I don’t really cont because we’d need that regardless,) After that:
$14 for Disney plus
$14 for Netflix.
We have an antenna that lets us get broadcast TV free. For those for whom an antenna isn’t an option, check with your cable company. Most have an ultra-basic option that is essentially broadcast channels only for about $15-20 per month.
This is a somewhat hidden issue - increasing fragmentation of the market. Before, The cable companies had a de facto monopoly. Now we have choices, but end up being forced to chose more separate services because everything’s not available from one source. Essentially, we now have more middle men.
Different strokes. :-)