Summary
Highlights
In November 2025, Disney+ significantly increased its annual subscription price, causing user outrage. Despite this, Disney's subscriber numbers have been declining for years, and its stock price has stagnated for a decade. Even after successful shows, Disney executives surprisingly claimed that 'streaming is dead,' raising questions about the fate of Disney+.
Disney recognized the shift to streaming early, acquiring major brands like Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm. Their biggest move was the 2018 acquisition of 21st Century Fox for $71.3 billion, adding an immense content library including The Simpsons, Alien, and Avatar, along with global assets like Hotstar. This content arsenal was meant to make Disney+ a dominant streaming force, launching in November 2019.
Disney+ launched to immediate success, gaining 10 million signups on its first day and exceeding 73 million subscribers within a year, well ahead of projections. Original series like The Mandalorian captivated audiences, accumulating billions of viewing minutes, suggesting Disney was poised to dominate the streaming landscape.
While Disney+ initially grew rapidly, its growth plateaued, while Netflix continued to expand. Netflix's success is attributed to its aggressive investment in original content, costing billions of dollars annually, which draws subscribers and combats "service hoppers." Disney struggled to replicate the success of The Mandalorian with other expensive original series.
Despite its subscriber numbers, Disney+'s streaming arm suffered a $4 billion loss in 2022, revealing that streaming was not as profitable as traditional cable TV, except for Netflix. The industry's initial focus on acquiring as many subscribers as possible, regardless of cost, is now shifting. Both Netflix and Disney are pivoting to a "strategic churn" model, prioritizing profitability even if it means losing some subscribers.
Disney, following Netflix's lead, is now focused on profitable growth. This involves reducing spending on content, as exemplified by comments regarding the 'death of streaming' for shows like Andor. Paradoxically, as Disney lost subscribers, it began to make money, finally turning a profit in 2024 and exceeding expectations in 2025. This strategy includes not renewing expensive sports streaming rights for Hotstar and significantly increasing subscription prices, as seen in the jump from $79 to $159 annually in 2025. Like Netflix, Disney is no longer reporting subscriber numbers, emphasizing profit over subscriber count.
The streaming industry is now prioritizing profit per subscriber over total subscriber count. This trend is evident across almost all streaming platforms, which are hiking prices even if it leads to subscriber attrition. Disney's CEO, Bob Iger, confirmed this shift, stating, "Instead of chasing (subscribers) with aggressive marketing and aggressive spend on content, we have to start chasing profitability." This new approach aims to create a more stable, albeit potentially smaller, path forward for Disney+.