’s subscriber growth slowdown at the 222 million mark portends things to come for other major streamers is one of the biggest unknowns fueling media stock volatility. Hollywood has staked its hopes for growth over the past few years on drawing subscribers from the global market thanks to streaming’s ability to reach beyond geographic borders.
Disney, meanwhile, has affirmed its previous guidance of Disney+ hitting 230 million-260 million subscribers by September 2024. But even after delivering solid subscriber gains for the first three months of the year, Disney also did not raise its longterm total subscriber target. A particularly concerning metric for Netflix: Cancellations among long-term subscribers accelerated to 13% in the first quarter, up from 10% a year prior, according to research and analytics firm Antenna, based on its panel of 5 million U.S. streaming users.
Honestly, it was pretty easy to see that one coming.