The Walt Disney Company reported on Wednesday that total Disney+ subscriptions rose to 152.1 million during the company’s third quarter, posting better-than-expected results. The streaming service added 14.4 million subscribers in the quarter, beating expectations of 10 million.
The company also announced that it has lowered its 2024 forecast for Disney+ to 215 million to 245 million subscribers. Disney had previously set its Disney+ subscriber guidance at 230 million to 260 million by the end of fiscal 2024 but is now lowering this guidance by 15 million on both the low and high end.
At the end of the quarter, Hulu had 46.2 million subscribers and ESPN+ had 22.8 million. These numbers bring Disney’s DTC subscribers to 221.1 million in total, which means that the company’s streaming services combined now surpass Netflix in total subscribers. Netflix reported 220.67 million total global subscribers for its third quarter after losing almost 970,000 subscribers.
“We had an excellent quarter, with our world-class creative and business teams powering outstanding performance at our domestic theme parks, big increases in live-sports viewership and significant subscriber growth at our streaming services,” Disney CEO Bob Chapek said during the company’s earning call.
Most of Disney+ growth for the quarter occurred outside of the United States and Canada, where the service added 100,000 subscribers to reach 44.5 million. The company reports that international Disney+ subscribers increased by 6 million to reach 49.2 million. In addition, Disney+ Hotstar, which is available in India and Southeast Asia, added 8.3 million subscribers to reach 58.4 million.
Also on Wednesday, Disney announced that it’s raising the price of the ad-free Disney+ subscription to $10.99 per month starting December 8 in the United States, up from the current $7.99 price. The price change will coincide with the launch of the streaming service’s upcoming ad-supported plan, which Disney says will be priced at $7.99 per month.
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