(CelebrityAccess) — As part of its first-quarter financial filings on Tuesday, Disney revealed that its new streaming service Disney+ added 26.5 million subscribers during its first quarter.
The new subscriber figures are a substantial uptick for Disney and the first insight into its subscriber figures after it announced that 10 million signed up for the service within 24 hours of its launch in November.
As well, Disney CEO Bob Iger said during Disney’s earnings call on Tuesday that another 2.1 million users have subscribed since the quarter ended.
In an interview with CNBC Julia Boorstin, Iger said that about 20% of the first quarter subscribers (about 5.2 million) came through a partnership with Verizon that included a year worth of Disney+ to some of the telecom’s customers.
CNBC noted that Disney did not update its guidance for the service, which previously estimated that Disney+ would have between 60-90 million subscribers by the end of 2024.
Disney’s subscriber figures put Disney+ just behind Hulu (also owned by Disney), which reported about 30 million subscribers at the end of 2019, but which also features a ‘freemium’ option where users can watch content with commercials.
However, Disney is lagging behind other established rivals such as Netflix, which touted 167 million paying streaming subscribers worldwide at the end of 2019.
