Why Disney+ Lost Another 4 Million Subscribers

Disney is dealing with a lot right now, between the turf war with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the writers’ strike and companywide layoffs that will reach 7,000 worldwide. Add to that another concern—the continued subscriber declines for streaming service Disney+.

It suffered its second straight quarterly decline during the first three months of the year, shedding 4 million subscribers. That came after a 2.4 million drop in the final quarter of 2022.

Up until then, Disney+ had never suffered a subscriber loss. But more could be ahead, as Disney deals with the fallout from losing streaming rights to the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket games, which had aired on the Indian version of the service, Disney+ Hotstar.

Indeed, all the losses could be attributed to India, where subscriptions were off by 4.6 million. Disney+ saw a 300,000 subscriber loss in the United States and Canada, where the service now has 46.3 million subscribers.

Worldwide, Disney+ has 157.8 million subscribers, second only to Netflix
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. But that’s well off the more than 163 million Wall Street had been anticipating for this quarter.

Disney+ Hotstar lost 8% of total subscribers. It accounts for a big chunk of the service’s worldwide subscriptions, 52.9 million. Disney+’s non-Indian subscriptions were up 1% for the quarter.

It marked the biggest quarterly decline ever for Disney+, which launched in 2019.

The Importance of Disney+ Hotstar

Disney+ Hotstar had carried IPL games since 2019, and Disney knew they were critical to the global expansion that has become so important to streaming networks. While the domestic market has become somewhat saturated—with dozens of streaming choices, most Americans have settled into their selections—the international market offers huge opportunities for subscription growth.

Fully a third of Disney+’s subscribers are in India. And so retaining IPL rights was a critical part of future success. To wit, around this time last year, Disney+ Hotstar subscriptions rose by 8 million in anticipation of the IPL season.

But Viacom18, a joint venture of Viacom and India’s Reliance Industries, swooped in to snag those rights away. It paid an estimated $2.6 billion to secure the lucrative package, part of its upcoming launch of Paramount+ in India. Again, it’s that international opportunity for growth—while Paramount+ continues to grow rapidly in the United States, boosted by the popularity of Yellowstone, it stands to expand more abroad.

Streaming losses were down $400 million for Disney. But amid a run of less-than-encouraging headlines, and with the writers’ strike threatening to continue for months, the company would surely like to turn the Disney+ subscriber losses around. It will have to wait till next quarter to see if the losses in India can slow.