Disney has announced, for the first time in its history, a drop in subscribers to Disney+, its streaming service launched in 2019. According to Variety, the company has lost 2.4 million subscribers during the last three months of 2022. Its income, however, has increased by up to 8% compared to the same period of the previous year thanks to the Disney theme parks, indicates the aforementioned media.
Disney+, specifically, has lost 1% of all active accounts, currently standing at 161.8 million subscribers compared to 164.2 million users in the previous quarter. Everything indicates that this fall is caused by the increase in prices, which precisely arrived during the first fiscal quarter of the year —which begins in September and ends in December. In the United States, for example, the monthly subscription cost $11 a month from $8 a month previously.
The Walt Disney Company, the company behind Disney+ has registered a revenue of 23,500 million dollars in its first fiscal quarter of 2023, up from $21.81 billion a year ago, as well as adjusted earnings per share of $0.99. They exceed, therefore, the forecasts of analysts, who expected revenues of 23,370 million and an EPS of 0.78 dollars.
The good results in terms of revenues are mainly attributed to the profits made through its theme parkswhere Disney entered 8,376 million dollars during the last three months of the year, 21% more than in the same period of the previous year.
The company’s benefits have also increased during the last three months, standing at 1,279 million. It therefore represents an interannual increase of 16%.
Disney announces that it will lay off 3% of its workforce
The Walt Disney Company has also joined the big tech trend and has announced that lay off a total of 7,000 employees (3% of its staff), as part of a cost reduction plan. The company’s goal, specifically, is to save up to $5.5 billion. 3,000 of them in the content area (except sports); and the remaining, 2,500 million dollars, in Marketing, manpower and technology, among others.
Other companies, like Amazon, Meta, Google or MicrosoftThey have also announced that they will lay off a large part of their staff due to the bad economic situation and with the aim of saving costs. The number of layoffs is around 10,000 and 11,000 in firms such as Microsoft or Mark Zuckerberg’s company.
