While Netflix made major waves over its loss of subscribers for the first calendar quarter of 2022, its chief rival Disney+ had no such woes.
The company has announced that Disney+ easily topped Wall Street growth forecasts for the quarter, gaining a further 7.9 million paid customers in the first three months of 2022 and currently standing at 137.7 million subscribers.
That’s up 33% year over year and shuts down the notion of a sector-wide slowdown after the pandemic-fueled surge of the last two years. Moreover, it suggests Disney+ is taking a good bite into Netflix’s market share. Both companies are reportedly planning cheaper ad-supported tiers to launch towards year’s end.
Around half of the new Disney+ subscribers come from the Indian streaming service Disney+ Hotstar and Indian Premier League cricket matches were a big driver of subscriptions this quarter.
Despite the surge, Disney missed financial expectations for the quarter – part of which was tied to the early termination of license agreements for film and television content in order to get it back for the Disney+ service.
Disney+ remains on track to hit 230 million-260 million subscribers by the end of the fiscal year 2024 and Disney’s total content spend across all platforms is expected to be $32 billion for this fiscal year with one-third of that related to the acquisition of sports rights.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
