This week The Walt Disney Company shared on an earnings call that it will stop reporting its subscriber numbers for its streaming services. This follows what Netflix has already done. Moving forward, Disney won’t share the number of subscribers it has for Disney+, Hulu, or ESPN+.
The change comes as Disney says that metrics like the number of paid subscribers or average revenue per unit (ARPU) have become “less meaningful to evaluating the performance of our businesses.” The change in reporting will take place for Disney+ and Hulu in the first quarter of its fiscal 2026 (the last three months of 2025). Disney will stop reporting subscribers and ARPU for ESPN+ as of the September 2025 quarter.
“We are focused on managing our businesses to deliver growth in a sustained way, and to align our financial reporting with how we operate,” Disney CEO Bob Iger and CFO Hugh Johnston wrote in quarterly earnings commentary released Wednesday. “Since we began reporting the number of paid subscribers and ARPU, our DTC strategy and the operating environment have evolved. Given this evolution, we plan to implement changes to our Entertainment and Sports financial disclosures.”
The executives shared what Disney will be recording instead, saying, “While we will no longer disclose subscribers and ARPU, we will provide information on Entertainment Direct-to-Consumer profitability.”
“We believe our reporting going forward will better align with changes in the media landscape, the unique nature of our integrated assets, how we operate our businesses, and will reflect how management evaluates the progress and success of our strategic initiatives,” the execs shared.
On the earnings call this week, it was reported that Disney’s streaming services saw a 6% increase during its third quarter. The segment had a profit of $346 million.
Disney did share that as of the end of June, Disney+ and Hulu had combined subscriber numbers of 183 million. This was 2.6 million subscribers more than the quarter before. Disney+ had 1.8 million more subscribers, with 128 million subscribers in total. Hulu gained 800,000 subscribers to reach 55.5 million.
Disney is projecting that total Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions will increase by over 10 million for the July to September 2025 period. This is primarily from Disney’s expanded deal with Charter. Disney also said it expects a “modest increase” in Disney+ subscribers for this quarter as well.
What do you think about Disney ending its reporting of subscribers? Is it a good move? Will it matter? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!
