In brief: Disney missed the mark with slowing subscriber growth late last year but anticipated a strong finish in the holiday quarter. That’s exactly what investors got this week as entertainment and media company wrapped up 2021 with 129.8 million Disney+ subscribers.
The figure is up from 118.1 million subscribers three months earlier, and is 37 percent higher than the 94.9 million the company finished with a year ago.
ESPN+, another of Disney’s properties, reached 21.3 million subscribers, an increase of 76 percent year over year, while Hulu’s total subscriber count inched up to 45.3 million users.
Revenue for the quarter ending January 1, 2022, was $21.82 billion with diluted earnings per share of $1.06, compared to Wall Street estimates of $18.36 billion and $0.61.
Investors have responded favorably to Disney’s latest report. Share value in the Mouse House closed at $147.29 just before the report was published and opened at $156 the following morning. Things have since cooled a bit to $154.20 but shares look to be trending up again.
Disney’s report was unique in that it detailed regional Disney+ numbers for the first time. In the US and Canada, Disney+ has 42.9 million subscribers. Disney+ Hotstar, which is the company’s streaming brand for the Indian market, enjoys 45.9 million subscribers while the remaining 41 million are international users excluding Disney+ Hotstar.
Image credit: Mika Baumeister, Dominik Scythe
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