Disney surpasses 100 million US streaming subscribers

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Disney has reportedly surpassed 100 million streaming subscribers in the US.

According to Ampere Analysis, Disney topped 100 million subscribers in the US to its services Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ for the first time in early Q4.

The report attributes Disney’s growth to its wide content portfolio and the aggressive pricing of the ‘Disney bundle’ of all three services.

Both Hulu and Disney+ are set to end 2021 with more than 50 million subscribers each, while sports streamer ESPN+ will have more than 20 million subscribers. The latter’s performance has markedly improved since the launch of the bundle in November 2019, with its total subscriber base nearly six times more than at the end of Q3 2019.

Overall, Ampere estimates that the domestic US client base of the three services will reach around 108 million subscriptions by the end of 2021.

Toby Holleran, research manager at Ampere Analysis said: “The Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ bundle, which offers a US$8 per month saving on taking the services individually, is a strong driver for Disney’s overall streaming growth in the US, particularly for ESPN+. A strong content portfolio from Disney+ & Hulu, making the most of its key Marvel and Star Wars franchises (on Disney+) and FX (on Hulu), as well as the continuation of live sports (on ESPN+) has further driven subscription growth this year. Additionally, the plan to incorporate Disney+ and ESPN+ subscriptions – alongside Hulu’s SVoD service –with a Hulu TV contract from next month will further push the domestic US subscriber base of the three services, reaching around 108m subscriptions by the end of the year. 

“Reports suggest that NBCUniversal is considering moving content from Hulu to Peacock in 2022, but because of the combination of attractive bundled pricing, alongside a strong slate of original content scheduled for release in 2022 across Disney+ and Hulu, Ampere expects the combined suite to experience growth beyond 2021.”