Disney Plus had the wind behind it to close 2020: the streaming service reached 94.9 million customers worldwide on January 2, 2021, the company announced.
That’s more than 8 million in just one month, of the 86.8 million paid subscribers on December 2. Now it also exceeds Disney’s original projections of getting 90 million subscribers to Disney Plus in four years.
The continued growth of Disney Plus through December benefited from Pixar’s “Soul” debut on the platform and the culmination of Season 2 of the successful Star Wars series “The Mandalorian”, both of which had a large number of views, according to with Nielsen. It also got another hot release with Marvel’s “WandaVision”, which debuted in mid-January.
And Disney is investing a lot of money in originals to keep the streaming train moving forward – and to retain existing subscribers. On the investor’s day in December, the company presented a list of 105 films and TV series, 80% of which were directed to its streaming services directly to the consumer, under the brands Star Wars, Marvel, Disney Animation and Pixar.
In all, Disney’s streaming services – Disney Plus, Hulu and ESPN Plus – reached 146.4 million customers at the end of the quarter, an increase of 131% over the previous year. Hulu subscribers increased 30% year-over-year to 39.4 million (including 4.0 million live TV customers) and ESPN Plus subscribers increased 83% to 12.1 million. The increase in streaming helped Disney exceed Wall Street expectations for the period, its first fiscal quarter of 2021.
Disney Plus will have another boost with the launch, from February 23, of Star, Disney’s general international entertainment service similar to Hulu, which will be integrated with Disney Plus (except in Latin America).
There is one caveat about Disney Plus subscriber numbers: about 30% of them come through Disney Plus Hotstar in India and Indonesia, which has a much lower average price than in other regions. In the quarter ended January 2, average monthly revenue per Disney Plus subscriber fell 28% year over year, to $ 4.03. CFO Christine McCarthy said that excluding the Disney Plus Hotstar, the service’s monthly ARPU for the quarter would have been $ 5.37 (down 3%).
Still, the continued rise of Disney Plus – coupled with strong fourth-quarter subscriber gains for Netflix and HBO Max – illustrates that so-called “streaming wars” are not a zero-sum struggle, at least in today’s pandemic environment. .
The strength of Disney Plus has given the media conglomerate confidence to raise prices: Starting March 26, 2021, the price of the service in the U.S. will increase to $ 7.99 per month (from $ 6.99 now) or $ 79 .99 per year (from $ 69.99). The triple package with Disney Plus, Hulu with ads and ESPN Plus will increase to $ 13.99 a month, also up by a dollar.
The Mouse House launched Disney Plus in November 2019 in the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand, before expanding to Europe, India and other territories last year. The service offers a rich library of Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars films, as well as the original hit series “The Mandalorian” and other exclusive TV shows and films.
Given the service’s strong momentum in the first year, Disney in December presented a dramatic upward revision in its forecast for Disney Plus: it now expects 230 million to 260 million total subscribers by September 2024.
In the earnings conference call, McCarthy said the company is “very satisfied with the level of turnover” at Disney Plus, as well as converting Verizon customers who were offering one year free to paid.
She also said that Disney will report the number of streaming subscribers only at the end of the quarter from now (except when they reach major milestones), which is what the company originally said in 2019. Last year, executives The company regularly provided interim updates to Disney Plus subscribers to publicize its meteoric growth.
In the photo above: Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff in Marvel’s “WandaVision” at Disney Plus