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Disney+ hits 94.9M paid subscribers

Credit: Disney+

Last updated

Disney on Thursday announced that its Disney+ streaming platform has hit 94.9 million paid subscribers as of its first quarter of 2021.

The entertainment giant made the announcement in its December quarter earnings report. Previously, in December 2020, Disney+ had 86.8 million paid subscribers, meaning the platform gained about 8 million customers in two months.

Initially, Disney+ set an initial subscriber goal of 60 to 90 million by 2024. Back in November 2020, the company already exceeded that goal with 73.7 million subscribers. Now, it expects to have about 230 million to 260 million by 2024.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Disney+ saw exceptional growth. At one point near the start of the global health crisis, the premium streaming service gained 16.5 million customers in just 10 days.

The strong subscriber growth in the year or so since launch has pushed the company heavily into the streaming industry. In October, Disney began to reorganize its business to shift primary focus to online streaming.

Apple, for its part, launched its Apple TV+ service a few weeks before Disney+. However, Apple's streaming service doesn't seem to have hit the same level of success.

The Cupertino company hasn't announced specific subscriber numbers for the service, but during its last earnings call, it reported that it has eclipsed the 600 million paid subscription mark across all of its services.



11 Comments

22july2013 11 Years · 3736 comments

Disney's "media networks" make about ---$28B/year.
Disney's Parks make about -----------------$16B/year.
Disney's Streaming Services make about--$16B/year. 
Disney Studio's movies make about--------$ 9B/year.

The Streaming Services mentioned above includes Disney+'s 94 million subscribers at $7/month which is about $8B/year. But also includes Hulu and ESPN+ which, when combined, appear to generate the other $8B each year.

Overall I guess I'm impressed that Disney+ already makes that much money, considering it's been around for only a year. I'm sure Hulu and ESPN took longer to reach that level, combined.

OctoMonkey 4 Years · 343 comments

No streaming services for me, thank you!

I wonder how much people pay (in total) for their online media.
   Internet cost
+ Cable / Satellite
+ Streaming 1
+ Streaming 2
+ Streaming 3
...

sdw2001 23 Years · 17460 comments

No streaming services for me, thank you!

I wonder how much people pay (in total) for their online media.
   Internet cost
+ Cable / Satellite
+ Streaming 1
+ Streaming 2
+ Streaming 3
...

Internet:  $50/mo for 200/200 (real speeds over WiFi exceed 300mbp frequently)  

Cable:  Cut a few months ago 

Streaming 1: YouTube TV $65 
Streaming 2: Prime ($12.99, but that includes Prime shipping, obviously) 
Streaming 3: HBO Max (free with cell phone) 
Streaming 4: Netflix ($13.99, just upgraded to premium for $17.99)  

So that's $145 as of now.  That amount was much higher.  Before, I was paying $185 for FioS internet (75mps) and TV (3 TVs, DVR, HBO).  I still had Netflix and Prime.  So I was paying about $70 a month more than I am now.  YouTube TV blows FioS cable away, my internet is much better, etc.  

oceanwaves 3 Years · 6 comments

Apple & Tim Cook team should focus on Holograms , an extension of augmented reality , they got almost all the hardware in place , they just need to apply the software & the photons properly . Holograms are the new frontier of entertainment & information. 

OctoMonkey 4 Years · 343 comments

sdw2001 said:
No streaming services for me, thank you!

I wonder how much people pay (in total) for their online media.
   Internet cost
+ Cable / Satellite
+ Streaming 1
+ Streaming 2
+ Streaming 3
...
Internet:  $50/mo for 200/200 (real speeds over WiFi exceed 300mbp frequently)  

Cable:  Cut a few months ago 

Streaming 1: YouTube TV $65 
Streaming 2: Prime ($12.99, but that includes Prime shipping, obviously) 
Streaming 3: HBO Max (free with cell phone) 
Streaming 4: Netflix ($13.99, just upgraded to premium for $17.99)  

So that's $145 as of now.  That amount was much higher.  Before, I was paying $185 for FioS internet (75mps) and TV (3 TVs, DVR, HBO).  I still had Netflix and Prime.  So I was paying about $70 a month more than I am now.  YouTube TV blows FioS cable away, my internet is much better, etc.  

Not too bad...  I especially like that 200 symmetric for $50!
Certainly better than some I know ($250+ per month seems fairly common)


We pay around $55 for Comcast internet & IP phone (25/2 but more than meets our needs as we don't stream)
No cable / satellite - cut the cord 15 years ago and never looked back!
No streaming - We have around 50TB of movies and TV shows
Xfinity cellular is $30 for 5 lines (total, not each line) - shared 1 GB of data

Total cost is $85.00/mo  Still too expensive in my mind, but not bad considering.