Disney Plus officially surpassed 100 million subscribers, less than a year and a half after the launch of the streaming service.
Executives announced the milestone during Disney’s annual shareholders’ meeting. The last time Disney gave an update on the number of subscribers to Disney Plus was in February, during its first quarter earnings, when it announced that on January 2, 2021, there were just over 94 million. Although executives did not say what brought Disney Plus to more than 100 million subscribers, the recent success of WandaVision and Raya and the Last Dragon probably helped. The next major Disney Plus series is The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, on March 19th.
“The huge success of Disney Plus … inspired us to be even more ambitious and to significantly increase our investment in developing high-quality content, ”said CEO Bob Chapek in a press release. “In fact, we have set a goal of [more than] 100 new titles per year, including Disney Animation, Disney Live Action, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic. “
The success of Disney’s streaming has caught the attention of everyone in the industry. Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings did not think it would be possible for Disney to generate 60 million subscribers to Disney Plus in its first year, and has now exceeded 100 million subscribers in 16 months.
Disney executives originally predicted that Disney Plus would accumulate between 60 and 90 million subscribers by 2024. The company has exceeded that goal and now targets between 300 and 350 million subscribers across all of its streaming platforms (Disney Plus, Hulu , ESPN Plus, Star Plus, HotStar) until 2024.
To try to continue to grow the Disney Plus subscriber base, Chapek reiterated that “Disney’s direct consumer business is the company’s top priority, and our robust content pipeline will continue to drive its growth”. There are currently several series of all major franchises and brands in development, and it seems likely that there will be more intermediate films (films that are not at the same level as Star Wars, Marvel or Frozen) will migrate to Disney Plus.
While 100 million subscribers are an achievement, analysts are likely to have doubts about the breakdown of revenue. In December, Christine McCarthy, Disney’s chief financial officer, announced that 30% of the 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, pointed out in January, overall revenue is lower.
Still, there is no doubt that Disney has accomplished an incredible feat with Disney Plus. Other competitors, like WarnerMedia and NBCUniversal, are trying to scale their own streaming services (HBO Max and Peacock, respectively), but are growing at a much slower pace.
During the meeting, Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger reiterated that he would leave the company later this year. This brand is your last meeting of shareholders. Considering that you saw the design and launch of Disney Plus, what an incredible feat to start.