Increase in Disney+ and Hulu cancellations following ABC’s temporary removal of ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’

Subscription cancellations for Disney+ and Hulu saw an increase in September when ABC briefly put the brakes on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” according to data from Antenna, a subscription analytics company. The show was taken off the air for less than a week due to backlash over comments made by Jimmy Kimmel regarding the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

The data from Antenna reveals that Hulu experienced around 4.1 million cancellations, while Disney+ saw approximately 3 million cancellations during that month. The churn rate, which measures the percentage of customers canceling their subscriptions, more than doubled from 5% in August to 10% in September for Hulu, and from 4% to 8% for Disney+.

Despite the cancellations, the number of new sign-ups for both Hulu and Disney+ was higher in September compared to the previous five months. It’s worth noting that Antenna’s data focuses solely on U.S. consumer data and excludes subscribers who are part of bundle deals.

In Disney’s most recent quarterly earnings report, ending on June 28, they reported a total of 183 million subscriptions for Disney+ and Hulu combined. Disney has chosen not to provide any comments regarding this recent data.