Disney tops Netflix in streaming subscribers, hikes prices

Temuera Morrison is the Disney+ Star Wars spin-off The Book of Boba.

Disney+ subscribers in the US will have to pay 38 per cent more from
December to see the service without ads, the company revealed today.

For American subscribers to Disney+, the basic service - to which advertisements will be added - will stay at US$7.99 - while an ad-free version will cost US$10.99.

It was not immediately clear if Disney would follow suit for its NZ service.

Disney said it added 14.4 million subscribers to its Disney+ streaming service in the April-June fiscal quarter. In total, subscribers to all Disney streaming services, which include Hulu and ESPN+, amounted to about 221 million, putting the entertainment giant slightly ahead of Netflix in the streaming wars.

Netflix ended June with 220.7 million subscribers after losing nearly 1 million subscribers in the past quarter.

Disney said paid subscriptions for Disney+ grew by 31 per cent, much of that internationally, over the same time last year. But revenue growth was not as strong due to operating losses from "higher programming and production, technology and marketing costs".

Disney's growing streaming sales, combined with a recovering theme park business after pandemic-era shutdowns, led the Burbank, California-based entertainment giant to beat Wall Street expectations with quarterly earnings Wednesday.

Disney reported revenue of US$21.5 billion in the three months through July 2, up 26 per cent from the same time last year.

Profit increased from the year-ago June quarter's US$918 million to US1.4 billion, beating analysts' estimates.

But Disney's direct-to-consumer segment, which includes its streaming operations, lost US$1.1 billion in the third quarter from its year-ago US$293m loss.

Since it launched in late 2019, Disney+ has lost a cumulative US$7 billion.

Disney shares rose 4.6 per cent to US117.69 for a US$214b market cap.

With reporting by AP.