BURBANK, Calif. — During a fiscal quarter feeling the full impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Walt Disney Company’s biggest bright spot in its third quarter was its Disney+ service which now boasted 57.5 million subscribers as of June 27, 2020, its quarter end.
During the company’s conference call with financial analysts, however, CEO Bob Chapek said the streamer now has 60.5 million subscribers.
While the company’s consolidated revenues for Q3 2020 suffered a 42% decrease to $11.8 billion from $20.3 billion in Q3 2019, Disney’s direct-to-consumer and international segment (which includes Disney+) enjoyed a 2% increase in revenue to $4 billion in Q3 2020 compared to $3.9 billion in the same quarter last year.
“Despite the ongoing challenges of the pandemic, we’ve continued to build on the incredible success of Disney+ as we grow our global direct-to-consumer businesses,” said Chapek, in the news release. “The global reach of our full portfolio of direct-to-consumer services now exceeds an astounding 100 million paid subscriptions — a significant milestone and a reaffirmation of our DTC strategy, which we view as key to the future growth of our company.”
The company also said it will forego the distribution to movie theatres (most of which are closed or have limited seating) of its blockbuster live action summer film Mulan and add it to Disney+ in September, but subscribers will have to pay US$30 to watch it.
Disney’s other direct-to-consumer platforms, ESPN+ and Hulu, now have 8.5 million and 35.5 million total paid subscribers, respectively.
For the Walt Disney Company’s full financial results for the third quarter of 2020, please click here.
