Disney+ Will Release Subscription with Ads in Europe Later This Year: Quarterly Figures Update

Disney will release its Disney+ subscription with ads in Europe at the end of this year. The company made this known during the presentation of its quarterly figures. Disney already released the subscription in the US and increased the price of the subscription without ads.

Disney did not say which European countries the ad subscription will be released in. The Netherlands was one of the first countries where Disney + came out a few years ago, Belgium was not. In the US, that ad subscription became the old price of the regular subscription and the price of the ad-free subscription increased by three dollars per month.

The streaming service has now 157.8 million subscribers worldwide, 4 million fewer than a quarter earlier. This is due to the Disney+ Hotstar subscription, which the company offers in India, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, among others, and recently lost a popular cricket sports license. This Disney+ version stems from the acquisition of Star in 2019. Hotstar lost 4.6 million subscribers. In the US, the number of subscribers fell slightly, but in other countries the number of Disney + subscribers increased. This increase was not enough to offset the loss at Hotstar.

Despite losing millions of subscribers, Disney is pleased with the streaming services’ financials. Disney earns relatively little from Hotstar subscribers, $ 0.59 per subscriber. Other Disney+ subscribers bring the company an average of $6.47 per subscriber, an amount that has increased due to the increase in subscription prices. Worldwide, a Disney+ subscriber, including Hotstar subscribers, brings in an average of $4.44, half a dollar more than in the previous quarter.

Streaming services including ESPN+ and Hulu brought Disney revenue of $5.5 billion in the quarter, up 12 percent from a year earlier. Loss fell by $200 million to $659 million. The company previously said it expects Disney+ to be profitable within two years. In the notes to the quarterly figures, the company said volgens Seeking Alpha still on a path to profitability.