Disney+ Revenue Hits an All-Time High

Disney+ had a massive day of revenue in late October. The streaming service set a new all-time high for its revenue, adding more than $3,000,000 of net revenue in a single day (10/22) from the U.S., according to our intelligence.

The last all-time high was set last November, where daily net revenue in the U.S. added up to $2,700,000.

That's Disney's first all-time record for daily revenue in 2021.

Which exclusive was it this time? Not Black Widow, because that's still not streamable. But with the number of exclusives available on the service, it's really hard to tell at this point.

But there's another aspect to this which many may not consider -- store fees. Apple and Google both drop their fees on subscriptions that last longer than a year. Which means... Disney's net revenue will continue to increase by 15% even if growth completely stops, as long as it can retain its subscribers.

Retention isn't a given because of the popularity of the brand, so Disney can't "bank" on those subscribers sticking around. Instead, it needs to work hard to engage them. The way I see it, that means two things:

1. Disney has to continue offering exclusive content and making sure every subscriber knows about it. That's also a good strategy for growth, so it's a win-win.
2. The less obvious one is that Disney has to make sure its subscribers don't go anywhere else because attention is limited, and everyone else (like HBO Max) is working hard to retain their subscribers, so if Disney allows its subscribers to wonder, it could lose them.

This is a pivotal time for streams, something I've talked about more than once. I believe that in a few years we'll start seeing the model go back to one app with a bunch of channels, much like cable. Who will own the app? That's what they're all trying to do.