It took nearly three years, but Disney is now a bigger player in the streaming game than Netflix. Ahead of Wednesday’s quarterly earnings call, the Walt Disney Company announced that Disney+ added 14.4 million subscribers over the last quarter, raising the service’s global total to more than 152 million. When you factor in the rest of Disney’s streaming services, which include Hulu, Disney+, and Star, the company has surpassed Netflix in overall streaming subscriptions.
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Across all its streaming platforms, Disney has more than 221 million streaming subscribers around the globe. At Netflix’s last quarterly report, the company reported 220.7 global streaming subscribers. Disney has officially taken the lead in the world of streaming.
Now, to be fair, Disney does have multiple services, covering both entertainment and sports, all at various price points. Netflix, on the other hand, only has one service. More than anything, these new numbers are just a testament to how much of the overall streaming landscape Disney has been able to affect.
There are some big changes coming to Disney+ in the near future, and it will be interesting to see how those plans will affect the streamer’s continued growth. On Wednesday, Disney+ announced that it would be officially adding its ad-supported tier in December. Unfortunately, that new tier will cost the same as the current, ad-free version of Disney+, as the standard edition of the streamer is getting a price increase.
Beginning in December, the ad-supported tier of Disney+ will launch and cost $7.99 per month. That edition of the streaming service won’t have an annual option. The standard, ad-free version of Disney+ is going up by $3 per month. The price of Disney+ is going up to $10.99 for a monthly subscription, and $109.99 for an annual subscription. That annual subscription price is increasing by $40 each year.
“With our new ad-supported Disney+ offering and an expanded lineup of plans across our entire streaming portfolio,” Kareem Daniel, chairman of Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution, said in a statement. “We will be providing greater consumer choice at a variety of price points to cater to the diverse needs of our viewers and appeal to an even broader audience.”
