Disney+ It seemed to be taking off like a rocket, however, after the company presented its financial results for the last quarter of 2022, it was revealed that it had lost subscribers for the first time since its launch in 2019. Disney decided to lay off 7,000 employees and undertake a deep restructuring to improve the benefits gained by the service.

Disney+ saw a net loss of 2.4 million subscribers in the last quarter of 2022. The company blames this mainly on a decline in Disney+ Hotstar, the streaming service available in India and parts of Southeast Asia, which crossed 61.3 million to 57.5 million subscribers. The origin, according to Disney’s version, is the loss of the Indian Premier League cricket rightsa sport of English origin that has massive appeal in the countries of the Indian subcontinent.

Disney+’s first net subscriber loss now has the service estimated to have between 215 million and 245 million subscribers by the end of fiscal 2024, down from a previously forecast of 230 million to 260 million, though it is expected to continue. . Going back to the last quarter of 2022, Disney+ subscribers increased by 200,000 in the United States and Canada, while Hulu and ESPN+ saw increases of 800,000 and 600,000 respectively. Revenue increased 8% to $23.5 billion in the period dollars, which is why they barely exceeded the analyst estimate of 23.3 billion.

Despite the fact that Disney+ is profitable, the net loss of subscribers has led the company responsible to take over the decision to carry out a deep restructuring and lay off 7,000 workers, representing 3% of the total workforce which uses a video-on-demand service. Bob Iger, Disney’s CEO, said he did not take the decision lightly.

Disney+ had 161.8 million subscribers by the end of the fourth quarter of 2022, which is clearly down from the number we published on previous occasions. The company attributed the loss to a very specific competition that is massively followed in a very specific spot on the globe, but populated by more than a billion people. Others, however, may prefer to point to the drift that Disney’s own production has been sinking into for some time now.