Disney turned in its quarterly results, including a mixed bag of news regarding its Disney+ and other streaming services.
Disney+ gained some 12 million subscribers from the previous quarter, bringing the platform’s total to 164.2 million. The company’s total streaming subscribers, including Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu has now topped 235 million subscribers. This is an increase over the previous quarter’s 221 million.
“2022 was a strong year for Disney, with some of our best storytelling yet, record results at our Parks, Experiences and Products segment, and outstanding subscriber growth at our direct-to-consumer services, which added nearly 57 million subscriptions this year for a total of more than 235 million,” said Bob Chapek, Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company. “Our fourth quarter saw strong subscription growth with the addition of 14.6 million total subscriptions, including 12.1 million Disney+ subscribers.”
Unfortunately, it wasn’t all good news for the streaming services, with increased costs leading to a larger loss than the previous quarter.
Direct-to-Consumer revenues for the quarter increased 8% to $4.9 billion and operating loss increased $0.8 billion to $1.5 billion. The increase in operating loss was due to a higher loss at Disney+ and a decrease in results at Hulu, partially offset by improved results at ESPN+.