BURBANK, Calif.—Disney’s results for the second fiscal quarter ending April 2, 2022 showed there is still a lot of growth in the streaming business, with Disney+ adding 7.9 million subs from a year earlier and the company as a whole hitting 205 million direct-to-consumer subs.
Disney+ ended the quarter with 44.4 million subs in the U.S. and Canada, up 19% from 37.3 million in 2021 and 137.7 million subs worldwide, up 33% from a year earlier.
ESPN+ also saw significant growth, hitting 22.3 million subs in the quarter, up 62% from the same quarter in 2021.
Hulu’s SVOD service ended the quarter up 10% to 41.4 million while its Hulu Live TV + SVOD service grew 8% to 4.1 million.
Direct-to-Consumer revenues for the quarter increased 23% to $4.9 billion, but operating losses increased $0.6 billion to $0.9 billion as programming costs continued to rise.
“Our strong results in the second quarter, including fantastic performance at our domestic parks and continued growth of our streaming services—with 7.9 million Disney+ subscribers added in the quarter and total subscriptions across all our DTC offerings exceeding 205 million—once again proved that we are in a league of our own,” said Bob Chapek, CEO of The Walt Disney Company. “As we look ahead to Disney’s second century, I am confident we will continue to transform entertainment by combining extraordinary storytelling with innovative technology to create an even larger, more connected, and magical Disney universe for families and fans around the world.”
The bigger losses at Disney+ reflected higher programming and production, marketing and technology costs, partially offset by an increase in subscription revenue, the company said.
Meanwhile, higher sports programming costs and a decrease in income from Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) pay-per-view events, partially offset by an increase in subscription revenue due to subscriber growth produced larger losses at ESPN+.
Hulu also saw higher programming and production, marketing and technology costs, partially offset by subscription revenue growth and higher advertising revenue.
