Walt Disney announced that Disney+subscriptions increased to 152.1 million, adding 14.4 million in the last quarter of 2022. TechCrunch reported Disney+ Hotstar in India and Southeast Asia attained 58.4 million subscriptions.
According to a Bloomberg report, ESPN+ now has 22.8 million subscribers and Hulu, including live TV, has 46.2 million. Netflixhad 220.7 million subscribers at the close of its latest quarter.
The company is raising the price of its Disney+ service by 38 per cent. Disney is launching its ad-free tier on December 8, 2022 in the US, introducing an ad-free subscription at $10.99 per month from its current $7.99. The platform will offer an ad-supported subscription at $7.99 per month.
“We had an excellent quarter, with our world-class creative and business teams powering outstanding performance at our domestic theme parks, big increases in live-sports viewership and significant subscriber growth at our streaming services,” Disney CEO, Bob Chapek said during the company’s earning call.
The company expects the streaming service to be profitable in fiscal 2024. The Verge quoted Disney CFO Christine McCarthy saying the company expects between 135 million and 165 million “core” Disney+ customers and 80 million customers for the Disney+ Hotstar in India by the end of fiscal 2024.
Disney+ was launched in November 2019.