The Walt Disney Co. beat estimates and added 14.4 million Disney+ streaming subscribers last quarter.
As of July, the streamer had just over 152 million paid subscribers.
In total, Disney’s streaming services, consisting of Disney+, Hotstar, Hulu and ESPN+, now have more than 221 million subscribers worldwide. The recent earnings propelled the company above rival Netflix, which had slightly less at the end of the second quarter 221 million subscribers.
“We had an outstanding quarter, with our world-class creative and business teams driving outstanding performance at our domestic theme parks, strong increases in live sports viewership and significant subscriber growth in our streaming services,” Disney CEO Bob Chapek said in prepared remarks. .
The majority of new Disney+ subscribers came from outside the US and Canada. Of the 14.4 million new customers, only 100,000 came from North America.
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Price whores
The company also announced price increases on its streaming services.
An ad-free subscription to Disney+ will cost $10.99 per month or $109.99 per year in the US starting in December, up from its current cost of $7.99 per month. A new Disney+ option with ads will cost $7.99 per month.
Subscribers to Disney-owned Hulu will also pay $1 to $2 more to stream their content, depending on the plan.
Wall Street analyst Adam Crisafulli of Vital Knowledge said Disney’s price hikes align with an industry-wide perception that streaming is underpriced.
“Perhaps the most positive part of the launch is the news that Disney will raise the price of Disney+ by 38%, a move that would seem to back up the observations of [Warner Bros Discovery’s] Zaslav about how the entire industry is under transmission pricing,” he said in a statement.
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