Disney, WarnerMedia and ViacomCBS all added subscribers in the third quarter, but streaming growth slowed from the prior quarter.
Disney ‘s earnings report Wednesday told a familiar story for its streaming service, Disney+: Subscriber counts are still growing, but the growth is slowing. Disney announced added 2.1 million subscribers for its fiscal fourth quarter, which ended Oct.2. That’s down from 12.6 million added the previous quarter. Slowing growth was also the story at AT&T ‘s WarnerMedia and ViacomCBS. NBCUniversal’s Peacock added “a few million more subscribers” but didn’t reveal a new figure. Only Netflix bounced back this quarter, reporting 4.4 million subscriber net additions compared to just 1 million adds in its second quarter. Netflix is expecting an even bigger bounce next quarter, forecasting 8.5 million new subscribers on the strength of “Squid Game” and other buzzy content coming to the service before year end, including “Tiger King 2.” The slowing growth among most streaming services may suggest pandemic gains are waning as more people return to outside activities and out-of-home work. Still, the general trend of linear TV cancellations and streaming signups appears to be continuing. Disney, WarnerMedia and AMC Networks all reaffirmed previous full-year and future year forecasts. And while pandemic gains may have slowed, production slowdowns and shutdowns have also ended, which will lead to a surge of new content for all of the streaming services. Determining who is winning and losing the game isn’t easy. A simple way to gauge that is by looking at total subscribers and average revenue per user, or ARPU.
