The clouds hanging over the streaming landscape seemed to part a bit on Wednesday, when Disney announced another quarter of robust growth for its direct-to-consumer subscriber base. The patented “Disney Bundle” of Hulu, ESPN+ and Disney+ now boasts more than 205 million subscribers worldwide — within striking distance of Netflix’s 221 million.
Meanwhile, CEO Bob Chapek is still projecting confidence, saying he expects Disney+ alone to reach 230 million-260 million subscribers by the end of fiscal 2024 — up from 137.7 million currently.
But the streaming business remains in dicey territory, particularly where Wall Street is concerned, following Netflix’s catastrophic correction last month. Exhibit A: Despite Disney's subscriber gains, its stock fell after the Wednesday earnings call, likely due to the $887 million loss posted by its streaming unit (more than three times what the segment lost a year ago), as well as CFO Christine McCarthy’s comments that sub growth in the second half of the year “may not be as large” as the company previously anticipated.
Visit Variety to read this article.
