Walt Disney’s streaming service Disney+ had a total of 157.8 million paid subscribers as of April 1.
This, according to the company’s latest results, was 4 million fewer than the same period last year.
The loss was almost entirely attributable to Disney+ Hotstar, which saw its paid subscriber total dip by 8% from 57.5 million to 52.9 million, over the period. Meanwhile, Disney+ had 46.3 million subscribers in its domestic (US and Canada) unit, down 1% on a year earlier, while the international operation, excluding Hotstar, saw its subscriber total increase by 2% to 58.6 million.
Hotstar and domestic subscriber losses were largely down the former no longer offering the Indian Premier League and price increases for the latter.
Domestic Disney+ ARPU rose from $5.95 to $7.14 due to an increase in average retail pricing, while international Disney+ (excluding Disney+ Hotstar) ARPU increased from $5.62 to $5.93 due to a favourable foreign exchange impact, a lower mix of wholesale subscribers and an increase in wholesale pricing.
Disney+ Hotstar ARPU decreased from $0.74 to $0.59 due to lower per-subscriber advertising revenue.
Walt Disney’s ESPN+ had 5.64 million paid subscribers as of April 1 (+2%) and Hulu – Live TV and SVOD – 92.32 million (+5%).
Walt Disney’s D2C revenues for the quarter increased 12% to $5.5 billion and operating loss decreased $0.2 billion to $0.7 billion. The decrease in operating loss was due to improved results at Disney+ and ESPN+, partially offset by lower operating income at Hulu.
The company notes that the improvement at Disney+ was due to higher subscription revenue and a decrease in marketing costs, partially offset by higher programming and production costs and, to a lesser extent, increased technology costs. Higher subscription revenue was attributable to subscriber growth and increases in retail pricing, partially offset by an unfavourable foreign exchange impact. The increase in programming and production costs was due to more content provided on the service.
