Reporter Marisa Kabas, founder of The Handbasket, posted on Bluesky today that more than 1.7 million subscribers canceled their paid Disney streaming plans between September 17 and September 23. The total allegedly includes subscriptions to Disney+, Hulu and ESPN. That falloff reportedly marked a 436 percent increase over the usual churn rate for the service. We’ve reached out to Disney+ for comment on this claim.
Disney also chose to increase subscription prices last week, which could prolong the wave of cancellations. Kabas’ source also claimed that Disney sped the return of the late night show because it had planned to announce the price hike last Tuesday.
True, but the financial hit doesn’t happen until renewal.
But businesses are constantly projecting out profits, if you cancel your subscription with 6 months left on your plan, they’re still going to see that revenue hit coming, where before they would’ve projected you would auto-renew at their higher rate