The Disney+ streaming service lost 300,000 subscribers in the United States and Canada in the most recent quarter — an ominous sign for the studio as it continues to pour billions of dollars into new streaming content that is flopping with viewers.
To make matters worse for its fans, the Walt Disney Company is hiking Disney+’s monthly subscription price to $13.99 from $10.99 — a 27 percent increase. Last year, the price rose to $10.99 from $7.99, which means Disney+ subscribers will see their monthly bill climb a total of 75 percent in less than two years.
The new price is set to take effect in October.
On Wednesday, the studio reported domestic Disney+ subscriptions fell by 300,000 for the fiscal third quarter, to 46 million subscribers. By comparison, Netflix boasts around 76 million domestic subscribers. Worldwide, Disney+ subscriptions declined 24 percent for the period, mostly due to the end of Disney’s deal with Hotstar in India.
The domestic subscriber decline signals rough waters ahead for Disney as U.S. numbers have been stagnating for the past few quarters, indicating that the domestic market has likely reached its peak less than three years after the platform launched in 2019.