The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) has put up the price on its streaming services and will increase the amount of advertising to offset a slump in subscriber numbers.
Streaming platform Disney+ saw subscribers drop by 7.4% quarter-over-quarter to 146.1 million in the three months to June, compared to market forecasts of 151.1 million.
In India, the platform lost the broadcasting rights to Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket matches — which cost it a quarter of users in the country.
But Disney also lost 300,000 users in the US and Canada where subscribers fell to 46 million, just the second time Disney+ has shed North American subscribers in a quarter.
Disney+ Hotstar in India dropped by 24%, going from 52.9 million to 40.4 million.
Bob Iger, chief executive, said the firm had a lot of "work to do", indicating as well that the company might follow Netflix and introduce a password-sharing crackdown.
The company is “actively exploring ways to address account sharing”, Iger said in the post-results conference, suggesting it might come in as early as 2024.
Disney “will begin to update our subscriber agreements with additional terms and our sharing policies” later this year, Iger said, and will also “roll out tactics to drive monetization”.
From 1 November 2023, the cheapest Disney+ plan in the UK will start at £4.99 and comes with ads, no downloading option, no 4K and no Dolby Atmos support.
Disney+ is also introducing a new standard tier as an intermediate option between the basic and premium subscriptions.
The standard plan, to cost the same as the £7.99 subscription currently, will have ads but streaming will be capped and it won’t support Atmos.
Premium packages with unlimited downloads will cost £10.99.
Reports in the US suggested prices for existing Disney+ deals there could rise by 27%.
Options for UK viewers
- Standard with ads: which will cost £4.99 per month and offer 1080p video and the ability for two people to watch on different devices.
- Standard: £7.99 per month - without ads and with the ability to download videos to watch offline.
- Premium: £10.99 per month - +4k video, downloads, and up to four different devices at once.