(PatrioticPost.com)- Disney+ has lost billions of dollars in the year 2022, according to a report from 19FortyFive. This reportedly comes as a surprise because the streaming service has been better positioned than other streaming services.
At the end of its most recent quarter, Disney reached 164.2 million subscribers. When factoring in its other streaming services, the company now has more subscriptions than Netflix. Part of the company’s success is that it owns a lot of popular content, such as the animated canon of Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars. Prior to the launch of Disney+, it also acquired Lucasfilm, 21st Century Fox, and other companies.
New content at Disney currently includes a TV reboot of the 1980s movie “Willow,” new TV versions of “A Night at the Museum,” “The Santa Clause,” and a “Guardians of the Galaxy” holiday special.
But, Disney’s direct-to-consumer division, including Disney+, reportedly lost $1.5 million in the recent quarter, on top of billions more lost in previous quarters.
“The decrease at Direct-to-Consumer was due to higher losses at Disney+ and, to a lesser extent, lower results at Hulu and higher losses at ESPN+,” the company said in its earnings release, adding that this indicated higher costs of production, technology, and marketing.
During the pandemic, Disney began charging $30 for early access to movies, but the loss in that revenue has reportedly hit them hard as they lost $4 billion in the last year.
It does not seem likely that Disney+ will have the plug pulled, but costs will need to be cut. Earlier last week, the company reportedly launched an ad-supported tier coupled with raising prices from $7.99 to $10.99.
While on CNBC, Rich Greenfield said that Disney knows it has reached the most customers who will pay for the service and will now need to push aggressively on price.
