Disney beats Netflix in the number of subscribers and raises its prices
Disney revealed that the number of its service subscribers reached 221.1 million at the end of June, compared to 220.7 million subscribers at Netflix.
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The Walt Disney Company surpassed Netflix with total subscribers of 221 million, and announced that it would raise prices for subscribers wishing to watch content on the Disney+ or Hulu platforms without commercial ads.
The media giant will raise the monthly cost of its ad-free Disney+ service by 38 percent to $10.99 in December when it begins rolling out a new option that includes ads at current prices.
Disney shares rose 6.9 percent in after-hours trading to $120.15 on Wednesday.
In 2017, Disney bet its future on launching a streaming service that would rival Netflix, as audiences moved to watch online rather than pay-TV and broadcast TV.
Five years later, Disney has overtaken Netflix in the number of broadcast subscribers.
And the company succeeded in attracting 14.4 million subscribers to the Disney + service, exceeding the average expectations of analysts in a survey conducted by FactSet with the number of subscribers of up to ten million after the broadcast of the “Star Wars” series and “Miss Marvel” series.
In total, Disney said its streaming services, which include Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, had 221.1 million subscribers at the end of the quarter ending in June.
Netflix said it had 220.7 million subscribers.
To attract new customers, Disney will release an ad version of its streaming version on December 8 for $7.99 a month, the same price as the current ad-free version.
Hulu will raise prices by a dollar or two in December, depending on the subscription plan.
Disney now expects Disney+ subscribers to reach 215 million to 245 million by the end of September 2024, down from 230 million to 260 million previously.
In the quarter ending July 2, Disney posted adjusted earnings of $1.09 per share, up 36 percent year-on-year as visitors flocked to its theme parks.
The company's total profit rose 26 percent year-on-year to $21.5 billion, exceeding analysts' forecasts of $20.96 billion.
• In 2017, "Disney" bet on its future when it launched a streaming service that competes with "Netflix", with the audience moving from "TVs" to watching online.
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