Disney+ hits 86.8M paying users, hikes monthly subscription fee

Posted:
in General Discussion edited December 2020
Disney+ has grown to 86.8 million paying subscribers, an increase of 13 million in the two months since it last reported user numbers.

Credit: Disney
Credit: Disney


CEO Bob Chapek announced the new subscriber counts during the company's virtual investor presentation on Thursday. The updated count represents new launches in Latin America, including the critical region of Brazil.

The Disney streaming service last reported subscriber numbers in November, when it announced that it had 73.7 million paying subscribers as of Oct. 3, 2020 -- a full year after it launched. In August, it said it had 57.5 million subscribers, just a few months earlier.

Disney chairman of international operations Rebecca Campbell said about 30% of the 86.8 million subscribers comes from Disney+ Hotstar in India.

Disney+ is no stranger to surges in user growth. From the end of March to early April, the streaming service gained about 16.5 million paying subscribers in just 10 days. It also famously gained 10 million signups on its first day of service.

Although Apple launched its Apple TV+ service a few weeks before Disney+, the Cupertino tech giant's streaming service doesn't appear to have seen the same level of success.

Apple hasn't disclosed subscriber counts for Apple TV+, but says it has 585 million paying subscribers across all of its Services. Sources suggest it's off to a lackluster start. The broader Services category has remained a bright spot throughout 2020.

Update: Disney on Thursday also announced a new services bundle that includes Disney+, ESPN+ and commercial-free Hulu for $18.99 a month. The bundle comes at a $6 premium over a similar offering that presents Hulu with ads.

Further, ESPN+ subscriptions will be accessible via the Hulu app in 2021.

Disney also announced plans to raise the price of Disney+ from $6.99 to $7.99 a month starting in March 2021.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12
    Disney can flaunt these numbers all they want - but the still dont have Oprah.
    mark fearingdewmemike1Beats
  • Reply 2 of 12
    This is an interesting time to see what happens in the streaming world. But for Apple and Amazon it's a marketing expense. It's just marketing. For Disney, Warners ETC, it's core business. So there will always be a weird divide between these dueling POVs. Apple and Amazon are forcing the hand of Netflix and the older studios by being willing buyers, but the entire entertainment business is so radically different than it was 15 years ago that the future is impossible predict. But you have to admit, having 86 million accounts paying you monthly is better than none.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 12
    Ahhh how i wish Apple had pulled the trigger and bought Disney few years back,.. 
    SpamSandwichBeatswatto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 12
    Ahhh how i wish Apple had pulled the trigger and bought Disney few years back,.. 
    I still find the idea of Apple hiring Bob Iger to run Apple TV+ an intriguing one.
    t-boneBeatswatto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 12
    Ahhh how i wish Apple had pulled the trigger and bought Disney few years back,.. 
    Except that Disney was never for sale. Neither was Nintendo. Sure there was a time when Disney was troubled but ever since the Eisner era in the late 80s when they started making hit movies again like Who Framed Roger Rabbit and The Little Mermaid, then in the 90s when they bought ABC and ESPN and had even bigger hits like Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and the Lion King Disney has been fine (an understatement). And after the Eisner era ran its course, they got even bigger with Pixar, Pirates of the Caribbean and the Disney Princesses merchandising empire. Next was going stratospheric after buying Marvel, Star Wars, Fox and launching Disney+.

    Also, even when Disney troubled in the mid to late 80s, whether Apple would have had the money to buy it is debatable. Sure stuff like "The Black Cauldron" and "The Brave Little Toaster" had then bleeding red ink all over the place, but Disney still had their studio lots, a very valuable film library, a cable network, theme parks and the merchandising empire. Even if Apple had mortgaged themselves to the hilt to buy those assets, what would Apple have done with them anyway? Disney is what they are today because of a string of outstanding people - Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg, John Lasseter, Bob Iger, Bob Chapek etc. - made excellent creative and business decisions. Without that, Disney would be MGM/UA (went bankrupt and now only exists on paper), Columbia (owned by Sony), Warner Bros (owned by AT&T), Paramount (owned by Viacom) or Universal (owned by Comcast). All of whom were much bigger entertainment companies than Disney was in the 1980s.
    edited December 2020 muthuk_vanalingammike1CloudTalkinchemengin1Carnage
  • Reply 6 of 12
    There was a streaming app called HotStar here in India that was owned by 20th Century Fox. I had a subscription to it. Disney bought out Fox and became the owner of HotStar. 

    When Disney+ began rolling out worldwide, Disney automatically updated the HotStar app to Disney+ Hotstar and existing subscribers of HotStar automatically became subscribers of Disney+. 

    I never would have bothered to subscribe to Disney+ on its own, but having sort of gotten it free, I enjoyed The Mandalorian and the occasional movie.

    I assumed the kids would be into it, considering the wealth of Marvel stuff, but surprisingly they weren't. YouTube and Minecraft is where they mostly spend their time. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 12
    It’s a very easy shout for Disney as it has a vast back catalogue and is a very well known and much loved name.  Whilst Apple is two of those, it does not have a back catalogue.
    SpamSandwichwatto_cobra
  • Reply 8 of 12
    Disney can flaunt these numbers all they want - but the still dont have Oprah.
     This made me laugh far harder than it should have.  And for that accomplishment you get a 1+... he gets a +1... yeah, she gets a +1... everybody gets a +1
  • Reply 9 of 12
    avon b7avon b7 Posts: 7,999member
    I've just switched carrier and have Disney+ free, for three months.

    Although they claim compatibilty with Nvidia Shield TV,  Disney+ loads, 'works' but then gives an error 39 message when trying to play content, which in 'Disney speak' could be just about anything when trying to hunt it down.

    At first I suspected HDMI cable protocol issues so I upgraded the cables and tried a direct connection to my TV. Same problem. I still think there could be an HDMI issue with the TV and/or the receiver, both of which are old. HD is all I need. 

    Anyway, I did various live chats with Disney+ support (getting escalated along the way) only for them to come out with 'some models of Nvidia Shield TV 2017 are not compatible with Disney+'.

    It's true that my shield is on the base 8.0.0 experience because I prefer not to' fix' things aren't broken, but if in the end, the 2017 Shield is incompatible it will just reinforce my desire not to continue once the three months are up.

    As a cheap compatibility check I've ordered a Fire Stick for another (secondary) TV to see if it works. If it does, I'll try it on my main TV to see if it works there too.
    gatorguy
  • Reply 10 of 12
    BeatsBeats Posts: 3,073member
    Why do people compare Apples ONE year of content production to Disneys almost a century of production?

    It's strange when people intentionally use unfair metrics to bash Apple .It's like when iKnockoff morons compare the sales of 1,000 knockoff Apple companies to trash iPhone.

    With that said Apple is very different from Disney so even then it's more like saying the NBA is better than the NFL.

    Disney can flaunt these numbers all they want - but the still dont have Oprah.

    I hate that sexist bi*** too but why the obsession with her? Every streaming thread has a commenter obsessing over Oprah.
  • Reply 11 of 12
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,622member
    avon b7 said:
    I've just switched carrier and have Disney+ free, for three months.

    Although they claim compatibilty with Nvidia Shield TV,  Disney+ loads, 'works' but then gives an error 39 message when trying to play content, which in 'Disney speak' could be just about anything when trying to hunt it down.

    At first I suspected HDMI cable protocol issues so I upgraded the cables and tried a direct connection to my TV. Same problem. I still think there could be an HDMI issue with the TV and/or the receiver, both of which are old. HD is all I need. 

    Anyway, I did various live chats with Disney+ support (getting escalated along the way) only for them to come out with 'some models of Nvidia Shield TV 2017 are not compatible with Disney+'.

    It's true that my shield is on the base 8.0.0 experience because I prefer not to' fix' things aren't broken, but if in the end, the 2017 Shield is incompatible it will just reinforce my desire not to continue once the three months are up.

    As a cheap compatibility check I've ordered a Fire Stick for another (secondary) TV to see if it works. If it does, I'll try it on my main TV to see if it works there too.
    Chromecast with Android TV is another option. The app has seen a significant improvement IMO, and I like the interface more so than my Shield's. 
    Carnage
  • Reply 12 of 12
    avon b7avon b7 Posts: 7,999member
    gatorguy said:
    avon b7 said:
    I've just switched carrier and have Disney+ free, for three months.

    Although they claim compatibilty with Nvidia Shield TV,  Disney+ loads, 'works' but then gives an error 39 message when trying to play content, which in 'Disney speak' could be just about anything when trying to hunt it down.

    At first I suspected HDMI cable protocol issues so I upgraded the cables and tried a direct connection to my TV. Same problem. I still think there could be an HDMI issue with the TV and/or the receiver, both of which are old. HD is all I need. 

    Anyway, I did various live chats with Disney+ support (getting escalated along the way) only for them to come out with 'some models of Nvidia Shield TV 2017 are not compatible with Disney+'.

    It's true that my shield is on the base 8.0.0 experience because I prefer not to' fix' things aren't broken, but if in the end, the 2017 Shield is incompatible it will just reinforce my desire not to continue once the three months are up.

    As a cheap compatibility check I've ordered a Fire Stick for another (secondary) TV to see if it works. If it does, I'll try it on my main TV to see if it works there too.
    Chromecast with Android TV is another option. The app has seen a significant improvement IMO, and I like the interface more so than my Shield's. 
    To work around the Disney+ App issue on the Shield I'm actually using the App on my phone to Chromecast via the Shield.

    It's been rock solid so far. 
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