Disney+ had 57.5 million subscribers globally as of June 27. At the same time, its ARPU stood at $4.62.
In its latest set of results, Walt Disney notes that the figures include Disney+ Hotstar, which launched in India as a conversion of the pre-existing Hotstar service. Its ARPU is significantly lower than that for Disney+ in Europe and North America.
The subscriber figures for Disney+ come alongside those for ESPN+, which had a total of 8.5 million, up from 2.4 million a year earlier. Meanwhile, Hulu had a total of 35.5 million, or 27% more than a year earlier. SVOD only accounted for 32.1 million (+25%) and live TV and SVOD 3.4% (+55%). ESPN+’s ARPU was $4.18, down 22% on the previous year. This was due to the introduction of a bundled subscription package of Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu beginning in November 2019 and lower per-subscriber advertising revenue.
Hulu SVOD only was $11.39 (-10%) and live TV and SVOD $68.11 (+17%). Walt Disney’s D2C and international revenues for the quarter ending June 27 increased 2% to $4 billion and the segment operating loss increased from $562 million to $706 million. The company says that the increase in operating loss was due to costs associated with the ongoing launch of Disney+, partially offset by higher results at Star and ESPN+.
Commenting on the results, Bob Chapek, CEO, The Walt Disney Company, said: “Despite the ongoing challenges of the pandemic, we’ve continued to build on the incredible success of Disney+ as we grow our global direct-to-consumer businesses. “The global reach of our full portfolio of direct-to-consumer services now exceeds an astounding 100 million paid subscriptions — a significant milestone and a reaffirmation of our DTC strategy, which we view as key to the future growth of our company”.
