Disney+ Loses 1.3 Million Subscribers as Result of Recent Price Hike

Disney+ has dropped 1.3 million subscribers during the final quarter of 2023 as a result of recent price hikes that hit the streaming service last fall.

As part of its recent quarterly earnings release, Disney announced that subscribers of its Disney+ Core service (which is available in Canada, the U.S. and other major regions) dropped from 112.6 million subscribers from the previous quarter down to 111.3 million. It’s worth noting that Disney+ Core excludes India-based Disney+ Hotstar.

According to Variety, the drop in Disney+ subscriptions is a result of newly introduced price hikes. For instance, in November 2023, Disney + increased its price in Canada. The price hike also introduced a new tiered access system. What used to be considered the base 4K model was dubbed ‘Premium’ and got hit with a price bump to $14.99/month or $149.99/year. This was up from the previous $11.99/month or $119.99/year subscription cost.

In addition, Disney+ also introduced the ‘Standard’ membership, which effectively took the place of the $11.99/month or $119.99/year price point. Standard offers the same access only capped at 1080p resolution on a maximum of two concurrent streams and does not include Dolby Atmos support. Finally, a $7.99/month ‘Standard with Ads’ tier was also introduced in November. A month prior, Disney+ also introduced similar price hikes in the U.S.

Disney+ also followed in the footsteps of Netflix and began cracking down on password sharing last year.

While Disney+ suffered a loss in subscribers, the company reports that it was able to lower the losses from its streaming business by $300 million USD (around $404 million CAD) during the last quarter. The company claims that its on track to reach profitability by the end of its current fiscal quarter.

Disney also announced that it has purchased a $1.5 billion USD (roughly $2 billion CAD) equity stake in Epic Games as part of a major investment. The partnership will see the creation of “an all-new games and entertainment universe” with ties to Fortnite. The company teased more information will come soon.