What They Say
UK analyst, Digital TV Research, has a new forecast report and said that it expects that the number of subscribers to Disney+ (294 million) will overtake the Netflix total (286 million) in 2026. However, Disney+ will only have more subs than Netflix in one country – India – 98 million Disney+ Hotstar subscribers versus 13 million for Netflix.
Simon Murray, Principal Analyst at Digital TV Research, said:
“Disney+ Hotstar will roll out to 13 Asian countries by 2026. These countries will supply 108 million (37%) of the global Disney+ subscriber total, but only $2.62 billion (13%) of the platform’s revenues by 2026. Hotstar subscribers pay less than a third of the monthly subscription fee of their US counterpart.”
Global revenues for Disney+ will be $20.76 billion by 2026 – half of Netflix’s $39.52 billion.
What We Think
Disney+ has rolled out incredibly quickly but remains a loss-making venture at the moment. It finished 2020 with 94.9 million subscribers and Disney said that its Direct-to-Consumer revenues for the quarter increased 73% to $3.5 billion and operating loss decreased from $1.1 billion to $466 million. The decrease in operating loss was due to improved results at Hulu, and to a lesser extent, at Disney+ and ESPN+. (BR)
