Disney on Wednesday reported its fiscal Q2 2022 results, as its Disney+ streaming service beat subscriber expectations for the quarter, gaining 7.9 million new users. Meanwhile, competitor Netflix recently reported a quarterly loss of subscribers and is reconsidering its business model.
CNBC reports that Disney+ closed the quarter with 137.7 million subscribers, while industry analysts had expected about 135 million subscribers. Disney CEO Bob Chapek said the strong results prove that Disney is in “a league of our own.”
Counting ESPN+, Hulu, and other Disney-owned streaming platforms, the company now has more than 205 million subscribers. Disney has previously said it has a goal of reaching at least 230 million Disney+ subscribers by 2024.
Disney’s stock rose almost 5% in after-hours trading, as investors seemed to appreciate that Disney+ has continued to reach new users while Netflix has been struggling to increase its subscriber base.
Meanwhile, Netflix lost 200,000 subscribers during Q1 2022, marking the first time in more than a decade that this has happened. The streamer says it expects to lose up to 2 million by the end of 2022.
In a letter to shareholders [PDF], Netflix said that revenue growth has “slowed considerably.” The company is blaming “a large number of households sharing accounts” and “competition” as reasons for the drop-off in subscriber numbers. The streaming service estimates that the 222 million paying households are sharing their account with an additional 100 million households that are not paying for the service.
(Sure, it could be due to sharing, but Netflix has also likely lost subscribers due to its raising the monthly subscription fees several times over the past few years, or due to a lack of attractive content.)
