The problem isn't that people are cancelling - it's a drop in the bucket - but that investors are getting upset about it:
> The more than 1.7 million cancellations represent less than one percent of all Disney+ subscribers, but the timing is considered problematic. Just a few weeks earlier, Disney had promised its investors an additional 10 million subscriptions by the end of September 2025.
> Some investors are now demanding access to internal documents regarding Kimmel’s suspension to better understand the management’s decision. This puts the company under pressure once again to create transparency and more clearly disclose the development of Disney+ subscribers.
I'm about to be one of them if it incorrectly accuses me of not being in my primary household one more time. The anti-sharing crackdown is driving me crazy (we don't share!)
I cancelled my Disney+ subscription through App Store, but since payment is monthly and in advance I still have access for a few more days. So I wonder if my cancellation has even registered in these numbers yet.
Hulu, ESPN, and Disney+ also sent out a notice that they’re increasing prices around the same time
I wonder how many cancellations are related to the price increase?
I know I switched to a cheaper bundle around that time, and it had nothing to do with politics. I just didn’t see the relative value of ESPN if I’m paying that much more for it
When we cancelled, I found it interesting that there was no place for a comment. My back-of-the-napkin theory, in-line with this post, is that they don't want the data to be available for these shareholders with questions.
Unrelated but I like to raise it when I see it. I used to love Disney+ because it was a fairly safe selection of content for children. Netflix pushes a lot of brain rot like cocomelon but Disney had the classics and other calm shows. Sadly I just see lots of blippi now and not only is he pure brain rot for kids, it’s hard to let my kids even think of watching know that he used to film shock videos like him being naked with another dude pooping all over him.
Edit: All/most of the streaming services make it impossible to opt in to shows. It’s either super clunky or they make decisions for you based on age. I find it’s easier to load up what I want in plex and use that as our digital shelf of DVDs.
Amazon will let you filter out individual shows but, yeah, it’s clunky.
Overall I do object to content providers pushing the responsibility for vetting content onto parents. Especially when one considers that, in the UK at least, broadcasters such as the BBC and ITV, are required to do this themselves for both broadcast and streaming, and for broadcast operate a 9pm watershed for content suitable only for adults[0], whereas streaming services charge higher and higher subscription fees and simply don’t bother. Rude.
[0] You can of course still choose to allow your kids access to this content but you effectively have to opt in rather than opting out.
It should be surprising to no one that censorship is very offensive to Americans. Subscription services, which are already an annoyance, should beware.
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[ 5.2 ms ] story [ 29.1 ms ] thread> The more than 1.7 million cancellations represent less than one percent of all Disney+ subscribers, but the timing is considered problematic. Just a few weeks earlier, Disney had promised its investors an additional 10 million subscriptions by the end of September 2025.
> Some investors are now demanding access to internal documents regarding Kimmel’s suspension to better understand the management’s decision. This puts the company under pressure once again to create transparency and more clearly disclose the development of Disney+ subscribers.
I wonder how many cancellations are related to the price increase?
I know I switched to a cheaper bundle around that time, and it had nothing to do with politics. I just didn’t see the relative value of ESPN if I’m paying that much more for it
Corporate fuckery all around.
Hacker News is the best quality.
> 436% above baseline subscriber churn
5 times the normal cancellations is no movement. A lot of that will people pulling the plug early so Disney will regain that share.
It never made sense, FCC was threatening Disney, they had a gun on them.
Unlike Rosanne or ABC cancelling Bill Maher (Who Jimmy Kimmel replaced), they canceled them because they were weak.
Edit: All/most of the streaming services make it impossible to opt in to shows. It’s either super clunky or they make decisions for you based on age. I find it’s easier to load up what I want in plex and use that as our digital shelf of DVDs.
Overall I do object to content providers pushing the responsibility for vetting content onto parents. Especially when one considers that, in the UK at least, broadcasters such as the BBC and ITV, are required to do this themselves for both broadcast and streaming, and for broadcast operate a 9pm watershed for content suitable only for adults[0], whereas streaming services charge higher and higher subscription fees and simply don’t bother. Rude.
[0] You can of course still choose to allow your kids access to this content but you effectively have to opt in rather than opting out.