Disney+ lost 1.3 million subscribers in the final quarter of 2023 amid a hefty price hike that went into effect last fall
Disney+ Drops 1.3 Million Subscribers Amid Price Hike, Streaming Loss Shrinks by $300 Million::Disney+ lost 1.3 million subscribers in the final quarter of 2023 amid a hefty price hike that went into effect last fall
Not sure where the positive news is, unless you're a Disney shareholder. They dropped subscribers and are now losing less money. They care about the money, not really the subscribers. This pattern will likely continue.
I can be pretty pedantic, but that seemed clear to me. Thinking about it, I regularly here "Disney has x subscribers" and much less frequently they "x people subscribe to Disney." So following that convention, saying that Disney has dropped subscribers makes perfect sense.
I’ve shared it with my very young nieces and nephews for a few years. We do Simpsons and Star Wars, they do everything else. Now that Disney is pulling a Netflix, I don’t see a reason to double my cost for probably less viewing. For the price of a year’s sub, I can get a lot of movies or box sets. Over the years, I can get even more and never worry about losing access. Assuming Disney continues to raise prices, I can probably buy more and more for the sub price (although buying power will also drop). I can never share my access with my family any more. I can share box sets. Guess which one makes my nieces and nephews happy when they come visit.
When greed backfires it’s glorious! Plus the more streaming services pop up, the more people will pirate; we’ve regressed back into the cable TV era all because the suits are greedy bastards and deserve to lose every subscriber.
Disney+ lost 1.3 million subscribers in the final quarter of 2023 amid a hefty price hike that went into effect last fall, but managed to narrow its streaming business’ losses by $300 million during the October-December period.
That doesn't really sound like it backfired to me. They lost subscribers but made more money.
That's funny, I dropped them last week right before they announced the price hike because I own everything I want to watch and now that I have my OTA DVR set up I don't need Hulu so I said "see ya round like a big old doughnut."
It's getting ridiculous. I am starting to consider dropping Prime. I don't need free shipping that bad and I don't even watch anything on it anymore. And when I do want to watch something I have to watch ads!? Yeah....
Yarrr me hearties! It be time to raise the Jolly Rodger!
Eventually these streamers are going to run out of runway, and they're already placing the blame on piracy. They're going to start pushing for more intense legal action against piracy and self-hosted options. Likely they'll push for broader enforcement of copyright and criminal charges, but i think they'll also litigate against plex and other self-hosted software and services as enabling/dealing in pirated content. Worst-case is that they start placing restrictions on VPN's and proxies, and they'll maybe couch it in a 'concern for national security'. FOSS has been having a moment the last couple years, but I'm very nervous about the attention their attracting.
I'm not sure what this will look like, but Netflix and others have already started putting out foreboding OP eds and statements addressing the market impact of pirating, and the digital media market sector is simply too big for legislators to ignore. The more companies like Disney and Netflix take on losses, the more pressure will be placed on legislators to act.
I was paying for a year at a pop. After the price hike, I was going to cancel entirely. It just happened to coincide with the shitty Disney/hulu ad price. Which got my kids off my back for not having it and it’s only like 36 bucks for the year. If I feel inclined to watch something on those two then I watch on desktop and ad block the ads.
I'm sure the strength of Disney's back catalog will more than make up for picking fights with the talent that create their new content while simultaneously breaking their mobile app experience with DRM and buggy software that drives their paying customers to learn about piracy.