- Disney CEO and CFO announced in their quarterly earnings report that they will stop sharing paid subscriber numbers.
- The change will first come to ESPN+, and other services will follow three months later.
- The reason for this change is that subscriber numbers are less meaningful now.
Following in the footsteps of Netflix, Disney has also decided to stop sharing the paid subscriber numbers for its Disney+ and Hulu services in its quarterly earnings report.
This decision was mentioned in Disney’s quarterly earnings report, where CEO Bob Iger and CFO Hugh Johnson discussed that paid subscriber numbers have become “less meaningful” and that not reporting them in their financial reports “will better align with changes in the media landscape.” Rather, Disney wants to report the overall profitability of its streaming service.
This change will first affect ESPN+, as the media conglomerate will stop sharing membership figures and average revenue per user starting Q4 2025 and three months later for Disney+ and Hulu. Disney’s decision comes after a quarter where it reported 2.6 million new subscribers for Disney Plus and Hulu, with a total subscriber pool of 183 million.
Netflix was the first streaming service to stop reporting its subscriber numbers last year. And with Disney next in line, we could start seeing a ripple effect in the industry where other streaming giants stop sharing their subscriber numbers in earnings reports.
