Discovery reaches 15M total streaming subscribers

Discovery said it now has 15 million total paying subscribers across its global direct-to-consumer business including Discovery+.

That number is up from 13 million at the end of March and while the company still isn’t breaking out subscriber totals for Discovery+, it said the majority of its DTC growth is coming from that product.

Discovery did break out some other metrics around engagement, churn and average revenue per user for Discovery+. The service is averaging three hours of watch time per day per subscriber and Discovery CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels said 50% of subscribers are active on a daily basis.

The company also said that monthly churn is trending toward low single digits and that the ad-supported Discovery+ product generated over $10 per month in ARPU during the first quarter. Overall ARPU for Discovery’s direct-to-consumer business is around $7, according to CEO David Zaslav.

RELATED: Discovery+ now available through Amazon Prime Video Channels

“We continue to expand the reach of discovery+ with recent launches on Comcast Xfinity and Amazon Prime Video Channels. At the same time, we continue to extend our overall engagement with viewers across screens, anchored by another quarter as the most-watched pay TV portfolio in the U.S. and our seventh consecutive quarter of international share growth,” said Zaslav in a statement.

Zaslav was asked if the Discovery+ launch on Comcast Flex (and soon X1) will cannibalize any of Discovery’s traditional affiliate business with the operator.

“It’s not cannibalistic at all with Comcast. They’re able to create value for us and for them,” he said, adding that Comcast’s position as a broadband leader and video aggregator through its channel store puts them in a good position to benefit from Discovery+.

Discovery reported total revenues of nearly $2.8 billion for the quarter, up 4% year over year. U.S. advertising revenues decreased 4% and distribution revenues increased 12%, while international advertising revenues increased 16% and distribution revenues were flat. Discovery’s first-quarter net income totaled $140 million (on diluted earnings per share of $0.21) and total adjusted OIBDA was $837 million.