Disney Plus officially surpassed 100 million subscribers, less than a year and a half after the streaming service was launched.
Managers announced the milestone at Disney’s annual shareholders’ meeting. The last time Disney gave an update on Disney Plus’ subscriber numbers was during February’s first quarter revenue, when it announced that on January 2, 2021, there were just over 94 million. While executives have not said what drove Disney Plus more than 100 million subscribers, the recent success of WandaVision and Raya and the last dragon probably helped. The next big series for Disney Plus is The falcon and the winter soldier, on March 19th.
‘The huge success of Disney Plus … has inspired us to be even more ambitious and significantly increase our investment in the development of high quality content, ”said Bob Chapek, CEO, in a press release. ‘In fact, we are setting a target of [more than] One hundred new titles a year, including Disney Animation, Disney Live Action, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic. ”
Disney’s streaming success has caught the attention of everyone in the industry. Reed Hastings, co-CEO of Netflix, did not think it was possible for Disney to generate 60 million subscribers for Disney Plus within the first year, and now it is 100 million subscribers within 16 months.
Disney executives originally predicted that Disney Plus would gain between 20 and 60 million subscribers by 2024. The company has blown past the target and now targets between 300 and 350 million subscribers on all its streaming platforms (Disney Plus, Hulu, ESPN Plus, Star Plus, HotStar) by 2024.
In an effort to continue the growth of Disney Plus’ subscriber base, Chapek reiterated that Disney’s’ direct-to-consumer business is the company’s top priority, and that our robust content level will continue to grow. ‘ There are currently several series of each major franchise and brand being developed, and it probably looks like more mid-level movies (movies that are not on the same level as Star Wars, Marvel or Frozen) will migrate to Disney Plus.
Although 100 million subscribers is an achievement, analysts are likely to have questions about revenue sharing. In December, Christine McCarthy, Disney’s chief financial officer, announced that 30 percent of Disney Plus’ subscriber base comes from Disney Plus HotStar, where average revenue per customer is lower. As Netflix’s vice president of investor relations, Spencer Wang, noted in January, overall revenue is lower.
After all, there is no doubt that Disney has achieved an incredible feat with Disney Plus. Other competitors, such as WarnerMedia and NBCUniversal, are trying to expand their own streaming services (HBO Max and Peacock respectively), but are growing much more slowly.
During the meeting, Disney CEO Bob Iger reiterated that he would be leaving the company at the end of the year. This is his last shareholders’ meeting. Since he saw the concept and launch of Disney Plus, what an incredible achievement to go on.