Disney Plus lost 18 million subscribers year on year, prices will rise
The group will also test a restriction on account sharing in India.
For the third consecutive quarter, the number of subscribers to DisneyPlus is falling. The group announced that it had lost more than 10 million subscriptions during the third quarter. The streaming service grew from 157.8 million at the end of March to 146.1 million subscribers at the end of June. The fall is therefore continuous and significant, since DisneyPlus has dropped 18 million subscribers over one year (since September 2022), including a notable decline of 1% in North America.
But the essential cause of this massive drop is already known: for several months, disney lost the rights to India’s National Cricket Championship and the Indian market reacted harshly with mass churn in the world’s most populous country.
Bob Iger intends to regulate the leak and the boss of disney announced the end of account sharing in India. Like Netflix, the group is about to operate a sharing restriction in the country, limiting the number of devices that can connect to a single account to four (10 connections so far). India would therefore serve as a test market and nothing says that this restriction would not come to us one day. Nothing is yet planned in France on this subject.
But we will not escape future price increases. In order to boost the platform’s revenues, which are still in deficit ($512 million in operating losses over the quarter), DisneyPlus will increase its prices in the United States. Starting Thursday, October 12, Disney+ Premium will cost $13.99/month compared to $10.99/month currently.
In France, the classic package DisneyPlus at 89.90 euros per year (8.99€ per month) will increase to 119.90 euros. Subscribers will keep their current subscription, which will be rebranded as Disney+ Premium.
Those who do not want to pay more will have the option of switching to the standard subscription, which will only offer 2 screens compared to the current 4 and without Ultra HD. A new standard subscription with advertising will also be offered. After being effective in the United States, this new offer will be launched in France from November 1 at a price of 5.99 euros per month.
Group turnover disney remains on the rise, thanks to the good health of parks, cruises and derivative products (+ 13%) and stands at 22.3 billion dollars over the period.
