Disney+ Subscribers Drop by 1.3 Million Due to Price Hikes

In the last quarter of 2023, Disney+ experienced a drop in subscribers, with 1.3 million users leaving the streaming service due to recent price increases implemented last fall. The decline was announced as part of Disney’s quarterly earnings release, revealing that subscribers for the Disney+ Core service decreased from 112.6 million to 111.3 million.

The price hikes introduced by Disney+ contributed to the decrease in subscribers. For example, in November 2023, the streaming platform raised its prices in Canada and introduced a new tiered access system. The base 4K model was rebranded as ‘Premium’ and saw an increase to $14.99/month or $149.99/year from the previous $11.99/month or $119.99/year subscription cost.

Additionally, Disney+ launched the ‘Standard’ membership as a replacement for the previous pricing tier, offering access at a maximum resolution of 1080p on two concurrent streams without Dolby Atmos support. A new ‘Standard with Ads’ tier was also introduced at $7.99/month in November, following similar price increases in the U.S.

Similar to Netflix, Disney+ also implemented measures to crack down on password sharing among its users.

Despite the loss in subscribers, Disney reported that it managed to reduce its streaming business losses by $300 million USD (approximately $404 million CAD) during the last quarter and is on track to achieve profitability by the end of its current fiscal quarter.

In other news, Disney announced a significant investment by purchasing a $1.5 billion USD (approximately $2 billion CAD) equity stake in Epic Games, signaling a partnership to create an “all-new games and entertainment universe” with connections to Fortnite.

Stay tuned for more updates on this exciting collaboration between Disney and Epic Games!