SILVER SPRING, Md.—Discovery’s direct to consumer business has seen major upgrades since the launch of Discovery+, as the company reports that it now has more than 11 million paid subscribers across its DTC platforms. Per TV Tech's sister publication Next|TV, that number was at 5.2 million at the end of December 2020.
Discovery+ launched on Jan. 4 in the U.S. and several European markets, providing the exclusive streaming home for Discovery Channel, HGTV, Food Network TLC, ID, OWN, Travel Channel, Animal Planet and more.
According to David Zaslav, president and CEO of Discovery, the company's DTC platforms are expected to reach 12 million paid subscribers by the end of February.
This information comes from Discovery’s fourth quarter and full-year 2020 report, though any revenue from discovery+ did not factor into those numbers. As for the financial details, Discovery had a total revenue of $2.886 billion in Q4 2020, which it says was generally flat compared to Q4 2019. It’s total revenue for 2020 of $10.671 billion was down, however, about 4%.
Zaslav is bullish on Discovery’s outlook, largely because of the emergence of discovery+.
“We are off to a promising start in 2021 with the successful launch of discovery+,” he said. “Our unmatched global scale and ability to serve consumers everywhere with a truly differentiated offering across platforms, as well as our robust cash flows, even amidst the significant investments in our next generation initiatives and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, position us to achieve sustainable long-term growth and drive long-term shareholder value.”
Discovery’s latest financial report is available online.
