After a disappointing third quarter for Disney+, the company’s streaming service significantly accelerated its subscriber growth during the fourth quarter.
Disney+ added 11.8 million subscribers during the company’s fiscal first quarter, up from 2.1 million in the previous quarter, and brought its total up to 129.8 million.
This quarter, Disney began breaking out domestic, international and Hotstar totals for Disney+. The service now has 42.9 million subscribers in the U.S. and Canada (up 18% year over year), 41.1 million international subscribers (up 40% year over year) and 45.9 million Disney+ Hotstar subscribers (up 57% year over year).
Disney+ grew its average revenue per user (ARPU) 9%, from $4.03 to $4.41. The increase was largely driven by domestic and international ARPU growth while Disney+ Hotstar ARPU, though up 5% year over year, is still hovering around $1.
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During the fourth quarter, Hulu added 1.2 million SVOD-only subscribers to bring its total up to 40.9 million while Hulu + Live TV added another 300,000 subscribers to bring its total up to 4.3 million. Hulu’s SVOD ARPU fell 4% to $12.96 due to lower per-subscriber advertising revenue and a higher mix of subscribers to the SVOD bundle. However, Hulu + Live TV ARPU rose sharply by 16% to hit $87.01 thanks to higher subscription and advertising revenue.
ESPN+ added more than 4 million subscribers during the fourth quarter while its ARPU rose 15% to $5.16.
Overall, Disney’s Direct-to-Consumer revenues for the quarter increased 34% to $4.7 billion and operating loss increased 27% to $0.6 billion, which the company attributed to higher losses at Disney+ and ESPN+ partially offset by improved results at Hulu.
“We’ve had a very strong start to the fiscal year, with a significant rise in earnings per share, record revenue and operating income at our domestic parks and resorts, the launch of a new franchise with Encanto, and a significant increase in total subscriptions across our streaming portfolio to 196.4 million, including 11.8 million Disney+ subscribers added in the first quarter,” said Disney CEO Bob Chapek in a statement.