Disney announced Wednesday that approximately 157 million users worldwide are actively streaming content with advertisements across its major platforms - Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+. The entertainment giant revealed that 112 million of these users are based in the United States, according to data averaged over the past six months.
In a move toward greater transparency, Disney detailed its methodology for calculating these numbers during the CES tech conference in Las Vegas. The company counts active accounts that view ad-supported content for more than 10 seconds continuously. Each account is then multiplied by estimated users per household to reach the total figure.
"We wanted to be the first to offer our industry greater transparency into the methodology used to estimate our engaged global ad-supported monthly active users," said Rita Ferro, Disney's president of global advertising.
The company's streaming strategy has increasingly focused on ad-supported tiers as a path to profitability. Disney CEO Bob Iger has actively encouraged customers to choose ad-supported options, while raising prices for ad-free subscriptions since launching Disney+ with ads in late 2022.
The strategy appears to be working - over half of new U.S. Disney+ subscribers are selecting the cheaper ad-supported tier. This shift helped Disney's combined streaming business achieve an operating income of $321 million in the September quarter, compared to a $387 million loss in the same period the previous year.
The company's streaming portfolio includes:
- Disney+ Core with 122.7 million subscribers
- Hulu with 52 million subscribers
- ESPN+ with 25.6 million paid subscribers
Disney will provide its next financial update when it reports quarterly earnings on February 5.
The numbers position Disney as a major player in ad-supported streaming, ahead of Netflix's reported 70 million monthly active users for its ad tier, though behind Amazon's claimed 275 million ad-supported audience across its properties.