Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS, ETR:WDP) has reported ad opt-in users on its streaming platforms Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ totalled an estimated 157 million a month across the globe.
Some 112 million of these are in the US, said the entertainment group, adding the figure was an average over the past six months.
Releasing the numbers at the CES conference in Las Vegas, Disney said it was trying to establish “a globally consistent approach and methodology to estimate ad-supported audience numbers.”
In a statement, Rita Ferro, Disney’s president of global advertising, added: “We wanted to be the first to offer our industry greater transparency into the methodology used to estimate our engaged global ad-supported monthly active users.”
Disney’s metric uses active accounts across Disney’s three streaming services that run ads and that are watched for more than ten seconds multiplied by the number of estimated users per account.
Ad streaming platforms are cheaper for consumers and Disney has been trying to entice more users onto the service by raising the subscription price for the ad-free service.
In an earnings call in November Bog Iger, chief executive, said more than half of new US Disney+ subscribers were choosing the ad-supported tier.