Disney+ It seemed to go like a rocket, however, after presenting the company responsible for the financial results of the last quarter of 2022, it has been discovered that it has lost subscribers for the first time since it was launched in 2019. This decrease has caused Disney to decide lay off 7,000 workers and undertake a deep restructuring in order to improve the benefits obtained with the service.
Disney+ has had a net loss of 2.4 million subscribers in the last quarter of 2022. The company has mainly blamed it on the decline in Disney+ Hotstar, a streaming service available in India and some parts of Southeast Asia and which has passed from having 61.3 million to 57.5 million subscribers. The origin, according to the Disney version, is in the loss of the rights of the Indian Premier League of cricketa sport of English origin that has a massive following in the countries of the Indian subcontinent.
The first net loss of Disney+ subscribers has now caused the service to be estimated to have between 215 million and 245 million subscribers by the end of fiscal year 2024 versus the previously forecast 230 million to 260 million, although it is expected to continue. being profitable. Going back to the last quarter of 2022, the number of Disney+ subscribers increased by 200,000 in the United States and Canada, while Hulu and ESPN+ saw their numbers rise by 800,000 and 600,000 respectively. Revenues in said period increased by 8% to reach 23.5 billion dollars, which is why they have barely exceeded the 23.3 billion forecast by analysts.
Despite the fact that Disney+ is profitable, the net loss of subscribers has led the company responsible to take the decision to carry out a deep restructuring and lay off 7,000 workers, representing 3% of the entire workforce that uses the video-on-demand service. Bob Iger, CEO of Disney, has gone out of his way to say that he has not taken the decision lightly.
Disney+ had 161.8 million subscribers by the end of the fourth quarter of 2022, which is obviously a decrease compared to the number we published on previous occasions. The company has attributed the loss to a very specific competition that is massively followed in a very specific point on the globe, but which is inhabited by more than a billion people. However, others may prefer to point out the drift in which Disney’s own productions have been immersed for some time.
