Disney+ plots big international expansion this summer

Disney+ has laid out an ambitious international expansion plan for this summer as it looks for more subscriber growth outside the U.S.

The streaming service didn’t provide a specific timeline for the new launches but said it plans to enter 42 new countries and 11 new territories.

The new countries include Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Bahrain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Malta, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Oman, Palestine, Poland, Qatar, Romania, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Vatican City and Yemen.

The new territories include Faroe Islands, French Polynesia, French Southern Territories, St. Pierre and Miquelon Overseas Collective, Åland Islands, Sint Maarten, Svalbard & Jan Mayen, British Indian Ocean Territory, Gibraltar, Pitcairn Islands and St Helena.

RELATED: Disney+ sub growth slowdown sparks doubts about 2024 guidance

Disney+ added just 2.1 million new subscribers during the third quarter—taking its total to just over 118 million. It caused some analysts to re-evaluate Disney’s forecast of between 230 million and 260 million subscribers by 2024.

"Disney's focus on franchises led to excellent sign-up rates out of the gate, but we are increasingly convinced that the penetration of this fan base is close to saturated in launched markets," wrote Atlantic Equities analyst Hamilton Faber, according to Seeking Alpha. "While there are new geographies to come, we believe volume growth will disappoint."

Faber said that the Disney+ subscriber guidance for 2024 looks overly aggressive and cut his firm’s forecast to 218 million.

After Netflix last week missed on its fourth-quarter subscriber guidance and guided toward 2.5 million new additions in the first quarter—well below the 4 million it added during the same period of 2021—it sent the stock into a selloff that impacted Disney’s shares as well.