Despite the huge success of the Disney+ streaming platform — which debuted on November 12, 2019, just ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic — this division of The Walt Disney Company still isn’t profitable.
Credit: ABC
Disney+ is the streaming home of nearly all of Disney’s subsidiaries, including Walt Disney Animation Studios, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm/Star Wars, and Pixar Animation Studios.
Since 2019, notably, an entire catalog of Star Wars and MCU movies, including the nine-film Skywalker Saga and the entire Avengers Infinity Saga, have been added to the popular platform, which has exceeded all subscriber expectations.
Originally, Disney+ was projected to reach profitability in 2024 and, per today’s Walt Disney Company Q2 earnings call, that holds true. However, CEO Bob Chapek confirmed that, as the company approaches profitability for its streaming service, Disney fans can expect additional price increases.
Chapek confirmed that Disney is “very comfortable with price-value relationship” that consumes experience with Disney+ and noted that the previously announced ad-based tier will cost less than the traditional, non-ad supported model.
He went on to share that with the ad tier allowing the company to reach “an even more broad audience, ” he feels confident that they can “increase content investment” and “give us the ability to increase our price” without cheapening the platform’s value proposition.
Chapek went on to state:
“The additive nature of an ad-driven tier [will] allow us to keep the price lower [for those Disney+ subscribers]. So, we believe that we can sort of move-up and cascade up our net price over time, given our tremendous value that we started with and the price-value relationship of the new content.”