Disney fans battered by inflation are hitting the “Cancel” button in droves.
The Disney+ streaming service lost 1.3 million subscribers worldwide during the last three months of 2023 as a steep price hike took a toll on fans’ wallets. In the U.S. and Canada alone, the streamer bid goodbye to 400,000 customers — Disney+’s largest-ever reported domestic decline.
The drop represents a major hit for Disney, which has been pouring billions of dollars into its streaming services without yet reaching profitability. Domestic Disney+ subscriptions have stagnated at around 46 million for the past year, an ominous sign for a streaming service that is only four years old.
The left-wing studio recently hiked Disney+’s monthly subscription price to $13.99 from $10.99 — a 27 percent increase. In 2022, the price rose to $10.99 from $7.99, which means Disney+ subscribers saw their monthly bill climb a total of 75 percent in less than two years.
The latest price increase took effect in October.
Like other streamers, Disney is trying to force subscribers to its ad-supported option, which costs $7.99 a month — the old price for Disney+ without commercials. Studios make more money from ad-supported streaming options due to the revenues from commercials on top of the monthly subscription fees.
Disney+ subscribers worldwide currently stand at 111.3 million, which doesn’t include HotStar customers in India. That’s still a long way off from Netflix, which boasts around 260 million customers around the world.
On Wednesday, Disney announced that its streaming services — which also include Hulu — lost $216 million for the final three months of 2023. That represents an improvement over more recent quarters, when the company was losing more than $1 billion on streaming.
Disney is coming off a disastrous 2023.
From an unprecedented string of box-office flops to continued streaming woes, the woke company failed to mount a comeback after an even more disastrous 2022.
Disney also spent 2023 doubling down on gay and transgender messaging to children. As Breitbart News reported, GLAAD recently announced that Disney (and Netflix) produced more LGBTQ content than any other major Hollywood studio.
Disney saw one of its biggest layoffs ever in 2023, with 7,000 jobs slashed worldwide in a bloodbath that was intended to help the company regain its financial footing.
Follow David Ng on Twitter @HeyItsDavidNg. Have a tip? Contact me at dng@breitbart.com
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