Disney+ Loses Nearly 3 Million Subscribers After Jimmy Kimmel Suspension

Recent reports show that Disney+ faced a setback with nearly 3 million subscribers leaving the platform after the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s show. This data comes from Antenna, a subscription analytics firm, and was reported by The New York Times. The loss of subscribers for Disney+ in September was about twice the usual monthly average, amounting to approximately 1.2 million.

In addition to Disney+, Hulu, another streaming service under Disney’s ownership, also experienced a similar trend. Hulu saw 4.1 million subscribers cancel their subscriptions in September, compared to 1.9 million in the previous month. This spike in cancellations led to an increase in the churn rate, which measures the percentage of subscribers who cancel each month. For Disney+, the churn rate doubled from 4% in August to 8% in September, while Hulu’s churn rate rose from 5% to 10%.

Despite these subscription losses, both Disney+ and Hulu also gained new subscribers in September. Disney+ added about 2.2 million new subscribers in the U.S., while Hulu gained approximately 2.1 million, representing a 10% and 5% increase, respectively, compared to August.

The controversy surrounding Jimmy Kimmel began when comments he made about Charlie Kirk’s assassination led to his show being suspended temporarily. The show was taken off the air on September 17, only to return less than a week later on September 23 after facing backlash and threats of boycotts. Both Disney+ and Hulu are now working to recover from the subscriber loss and regain the trust of their audience.