Yes, Disney Plus has overtaken the number of Netflix subscribers. But there are asterisks
Maybe you didn’t feel it, but tonight nothing fell in the streaming war that has been going on in the world in recent years: Disney managed to surprise many when it announced the number of subscribers to its streaming services, and thus also managed to beat the actress who has become more identified with the world of streaming, Netflix. But before you start singing Circle Of Life, there are some points here that you should pay attention to, and a warning sign for Israel.
Disney has become the largest streaming provider in the world
Tonight (Thursday) Disney revealed its quarterly reports, and alongside impressive data on revenues from its theme parks and other businesses, the most interesting data revolved around the worlds of streaming. House Of Mouse announced that it has 221.1 million streaming customers worldwide. Netflix, the biggest rival, announced last month that it has 220.67 million customers. Which means, in practice, Disney’s streaming business has overtaken Netflix’s, and Disney is the largest streaming company in the world.
But, and this is an important but: unlike quite a few headlines in the world and in Israel, it is not Disney+ that actually overtook Netflix, but rather all of Disney’s streaming services, which include Disney Plus, ESPN Plus and Hulu. Disney Plus added 14.4 million new users, beating analysts’ expectations that it would report 10 million new subscribers. During the last quarter, Disney launched its streaming service in quite a few more countries on the way to global expansion, and Israel also joined the service that had a controversial launch. Now, Disney Plus has a very impressive number of 152.1 million users. An impressive number, but still far from Netflix’s 220 million customers.
Photo: Unsplash
In addition, it seems that Disney itself does not expect this growth to continue for long, and it warns that the loss of the broadcasting rights of cricket, the mega-popular sport in India, will lead to slower growth than expected. Thus, it expects it to reach 215-245 million subscribers by September 2024. Just a few months ago, Disney CEO Bob Chapak confirmed that he still expects the company to reach 230-260 million subscribers in the same period of time.
Caution: price increase ahead
At the same time as Disney’s impressive numbers, there are also more worrying numbers for customers: the company announced a price increase for its main streaming service from $7.99 to $10.99 per month, starting this December. That month, Disney will launch its new subscription that comes with ads, for which it will charge a surprisingly bad $7.99. That is, what customers in the United States have been accustomed to paying until now (after previous price increases), becomes the price for the new base package supported by advertising revenue. Hulu subscribers will also now pay an additional $2 for the ad-free package, and ESPN customers will receive a significant increase of $3.
We checked with Disney Plus in Israel, and the company said that the price increases are only relevant to the United States – so, at least as of now, we are not yet facing a price increase. However, as we have seen with Netflix, the price increases usually start from the home markets, and begin to expand to the other markets gradually – so we would not be surprised if this happens in Israel as well.
Idan Ben Tovim
Born with a joystick in his hand. He has far too many gadgets and far too little free time to play with them all. Has an unexplained hammer for performing instrument battery calibrations. When he’s not busy writing about technology, he likes to talk about it, and a lot
