Ahead of the much-touted Disney Plus Day, the streaming juggernaut of the Walt Disney Company has hit an unlikely speed bump. The content giant declared its Q4 fiscal results on Wednesday, which are quite disappointing on every front, and far removed from Wall Street expectations.
The most glaring disappointment is the substantial slowdown in Disney Plus subscriber growth. The Walt Disney Company has reported a mere 2 million growth in subscribers this quarter, widely missing market expectations of a 10 million growth in Q4. Disney Plus had ended the last quarter with paid subscriptions of 116 million at the end of June. That figure has grown to just 118.1 million paid subscribers worldwide in the quarter ending in September. The figure is wide off the expected mark. Trade pundits had expected Disney Plus to hit 126.2 million paid subscriptions by the end of September.
Even the average monthly revenue per paid subscriber for Disney Plus witnessed a drop from last year. The revenue earned by Disney per paid subscriber stands at $4.12 this quarter, down from $4.52 at the end of September 2020. The drop in revenue can be attributed to more number of paid subscriptions coming from Disney’s Asian streaming arm, Disney Plus Hotstar, which is priced relatively lower as compared to Disney Plus. Disney Plus Hotstar accounted for about 37% of total Disney Plus paid subscribers.
Disney head Bob Chapek has attributed the slowdown partly to COVID-related production delays. The disappointing Q4 results sent Disney stocks into a downward spiral, falling more than 4% in after-hours trading.
Despite the slowdown, Disney honchos expect Disney Plus to reach 230 million to 260 million total paid subscribers by September 2024.