The Walt Disney Company may be licensing rights to some of its recent hit TV shows to ad-supported free streaming services like Amazon’s IMDb TV, but that hasn’t hurt the growth of it’s new flagship subscription streaming service Disney+. Disney just announced that Disney Plus has amassed 28.6 million paid subscribers as of February 1.
The initial 1 year goal for Disney+ was said to be in the 60 to 90 million range. So they’re almost 1/3rd of the way to their stretch goal. The service launched less than three months ago on November 12, 2019. Not too shabby for their roll-out phase.
If you’re wondering about Disney’s other streaming services, ESPN+ has 7.6 million paid subscribers and Hulu clocks in with 30.7 million.
“We believe the subscriber growth to date and the overall reaction to Disney+ reflects a variety of factors that include the uniqueness of the service, an excellent user interface and the high quality of our brands and content,” said Disney Chair and CEO Bob Iger. “Although our volume will increase, we remain focused on providing quality content from our core franchises and brands, not just quantity, as we continue to build our portfolio.”
Disney+ launched in the U.S., Canada and the Netherlands on November 12, 2019, followed by its debut in Australia, New Zealand and Puerto Rico a week later on November 19. The service will launch on March 24 in markets across Western Europe—including the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria and Switzerland, and today Iger announced that Disney+ will launch in India as well on March 29 through Hotstar. Additional Western Europe markets, including Belgium, the Nordics and Portugal, will follow in summer 2020.
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