The Walt Disney Company on Wednesday said its television streaming service has already won 50 million paid subscribers just five months after its launch in the US.
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Disney+ rolled out in India and eight Western European countries in recent weeks.
About eight million of its paid subscriptions are in India, where Disney+ is offered in conjunction with existing Hotstar service.
“We’re truly humbled that Disney+ is resonating with millions around the globe, and believe this bodes well for our continued expansion throughout Western Europe and into Japan and all of Latin America later this year,” direct-to-consumer and international chairman Kevin Mayer said in a release.
The Walt Disney Company last month rolled out Disney+ streaming service in seven European countries, but had reduced bandwidth — and hence reduced output quality — because of the heavy demand on network infrastructure during the coronavirus crisis.
Strict confinement rules are keeping millions of people at home in a bid to curtail the outbreak, effectively providing an enormous captive audience for the US entertainment giant’s contender in the streaming market.
After its US launch last November, Disney+ is now streaming in Austria, Britain, France, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Spain and Switzerland.
Disney is hoping its subscription rate of 6.99 euros a month (£5.99 in Britain and $6.99 in the US) will be a small price to pay for in-home access to its blockbuster films and franchises.
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It aims to compete with Netflix, Apple and Amazon by leveraging its huge catalogue of Disney animated classics along with its Pixar, Marvel and National Geographic movies — not to mention its wildly successful “Star Wars” franchise.
Leading television streaming service Netflix reported having 167 million subscribers in a quarterly earnings report early this year.
