Disney+ shed another 4 million subscribers in the first three months of 2023, marking the streamer’s second consecutive quarterly drop after closing 2022 with a loss of 2.4 million subscribers. Disney ended the quarter with 157.8 million subscribers at Disney+, significantly missing Wall Street’s estimate of 163.17 million subs.
On Wednesday, CEO Bob Iger and Co. beat Wall Street estimates for Disney’s quarterly earnings and revenue due to an impressive January-March showing at the company’s theme parks. That win comes during a fiscal Q2, which concluded April 1, plagued by company-wide layoffs, a looming (and now active) writers strike and a turf war with Florida Gov. Rick DeSantis.
During Disney’s earnings call with analysts later Wednesday, Iger — who returned to his post as CEO last fall upon the ousting of Bob Chapek — announced that Hulu content will be introduced on Disney+ later this year in a “one-app experience.”
Also on the call, CFO Christine McCarthy announced Disney is “in the process of reviewing the content on our DTC services to align with the strategic changes in our approach to content curation” and “will be removing certain content from our streaming platforms.”
According to McCarthy, Disney expects a writedown in Q3 of $1.5-$1.8 billion from removing the content. McCarthy also said “going forward we intend to produce lower volumes of content in alignment with this strategic shift.”
MacDailyNews Note: While Disney plans to combine Hulu and Disney+ content into a single app, the services will stay separate. Both services will only be available to those who have subscribed to both Hulu and Disney+.
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