The Walt Disney Company announced on Wednesday that it has an estimated 157 million global monthly active users watching ad-supported content across its streaming platforms, Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+. This number includes 112 million users domestically and is an average over the last six months.
The company has set out to define a globally consistent approach and methodology for estimating ad-supported audience numbers, as there is no industry standard for measuring global streaming advertising audience size. The methodology uses active accounts across the three streaming services that have viewed ad-supported shows and movies continuously for more than 10 seconds, with each active account multiplied by the number of estimated users per account to estimate the total number of users.
The estimated active users are added across the apps without de-duplication, meaning users who subscribe to more than one platform could be counted more than once.
The company’s ad-supported tiers have been a key area of focus, as media companies look to generate profits from their streaming businesses. Disney has raised prices on commercial-free options since launching Disney+ with ads in late 2022, and the company has emphasized steering customers towards its ad-supported tiers.
In November, Disney reported that more than half of new U.S. Disney+ subscribers were choosing the cheaper, ad-supported tier, which “bodes well for the future.” The company’s combined streaming business, including Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+, posted operating income of $321 million for the September period, compared to a loss of $387 million in the same period the previous year.