Disney+ Streaming Service Loses 4 Million Subscribers In 3 Months, Most From Asia

In the first three months of 2023, Disney's flagship streaming service lost millions of users as a result of losing the streaming rights to Indian cricket matches the previous year, and its Hotstar service in Asia was the primary cause of subscriber losses.

Total subscribers to the flagship Disney+ service dropped by 4 million from the previous quarter to 157.8 million.

Most of the defections came from the Disney+ Hotstar offering in India after it lost streaming rights to Indian Premier League cricket matches. Disney also shed 300,000 customers in the United States and Canada, where it raised prices last December.

Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy had warned in February that the company expected "modestly higher" cancellations because of the price increase.

Wall Street has been pressuring media companies to make profits from the billions of dollars they have poured into streaming in recent years to compete with Netflix Inc.

Iger, who came out of retirement in November to tackle the company's challenges, announced a revamp in February that included a promise of eliminating $5.5 billion in costs, partly through 7,000 job cuts.

As Disney tries to build streaming, its traditional television business faces hurdles. Operating income at linear networks dropped 35% from a year earlier to $1.8 billion, partly from higher sports programming and production costs related to the College Football Playoffs and the NFL at ESPN, and lower advertising revenue at ABC and at its owned television stations.