The Walt Disney Co saw its video streaming platform Disney+ add 12 million subscribers globally in the July to September quarter, with Hotstar bringing in a little less than 3 million subscribers. This is a dip from the 8 million subscribers Hotstar had added in the April to June quarter.
The service is known as Disney+ Hotstar in India and other Asian countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. Globally, Disney+ has breached the 164 million subscriber mark. The company follows an October to September financial year.
“We expect Disney+ core subscriber growth to accelerate in the fiscal second quarter, largely driven by international markets. And at Disney+ Hotstar, we are currently expecting that subscribers will decline in Q1 due to the absence of the IPL (Indian Premier League), but we do expect to see some stabilization in Q2,“ Christine McCarthy, senior executive vice-president and chief financial officer had said during an earnings call.
This August, Walt Disney had lowered its subscriber guidance for Hotstar to 80 million by the end of fiscal 2024 after the loss of rights to stream the Indian Premier League online. The platform had earlier projected the user base at 70-100 million. This will bring the overall subscriptions for Disney+, down to 215-245 million globally in the same period, as compared to the previous guidance of 230-260 million, the company had said.
The average monthly revenue per paid subscriber for Disney+ Hotstar decreased from $0.64 to $0.58 in the September quarter due to lower per-subscriber advertising revenue and a higher mix of wholesale subscribers, partially offset by an increase in retail pricing, Disney had said in a press release.
