Hakuna Matata! Disney got a revenue boost in the United Kingdom thanks in part to audiences returning to West End stage plays such as The Lion King following the pandemic.
In the year to October 1, 2022, the U.S. media giant’s sales hit £3.1B ($4B) in the UK. According to earnings filed at Companies House, this was an increase of almost 20% in the same period in 2021,
Disney’s experiences, parks and products business expanded its revenue by almost £100M to £547M, while its media and entertainment unit recorded a 23% increase in sales to £2.6B.
Growth in the latter division was attributed by Disney to the strength of Disney+, the streaming service that launched UK originals such as Wedding Season within the accounting period.
Walt Disney Company Limited’s pre-tax profit rebounded over the period owing to internal company transactions, while it posted a profit of £457M last year, compared with a loss of £300M in 2021.
Streaming services in the UK have been able to increase their revenues by 20%, according to the latest Media Nations report from Ofcom, while subscriber numbers remain at a standstill.
The combined turnover Between all of the different streaming services, including Disney+, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video, was £3.3 billion, 21.5% above last year, double what it was three years ago.
The main factor behind the increased combined revenue is the streaming services, including Netflix increasing their prices. Disney+ was one of the biggest earners, increasing its revenue by 40% to £383 million, while Netflix’s revenues increased by 16% to £1.61 billion.
The report indicates however, that the market in the United Kingdom is entering a phase of maturity, posing challenges for growth and sustainability in the future and that SVoD business models are under pressure as attracting customers and retaining them becomes more challenging, with providers increasingly looking to better manage costs, identify new revenue-generating opportunities, and focus on profitability in spite of continued revenue growth.
With the UK being hit by the cost of living crisis, we will likely see less growth in the future as more people start looking at reducing costs. But for Disney+, these results show that audiences continue to sign up to the platform and, more importantly, are generally satisfied with the available content. This has had an impact on how many streaming services people sign up for, with 66% of people in the UK now subscribed to a streaming service. Down 2% from the middle of the pandemic. Netflix which is the most subscribed platform in the UK, can be found in 59% of households, with Amazon Prime at 45% and Disney+ at 25%. Disney+ added an additional 746,000 households between the 1st and 4th quarters of 2022, taking its subscription base up to 7.1 million households.
The report also shows that there is a high level of satisfaction overall with streaming services, with 86% of Netflix subscribers, 82% of Disney+ and 80% of Prime Video. Netflix is now the third most popular destination, after the BBC and ITV, for UK audiences to turn to. https://whatsondisneyplus.com/disney-revenue-soars-by-40-in-the-uk/
As expected, although younger audiences are more likely to watch streaming services like Disney+, older audiences generally watch less broadcast TV than in the previous year. Disney+ continued to gain momentum with younger audiences, and its reach increased yearly by three percentage points, from 37% to 40% while older viewers are increasingly using streaming services, with take-up of Disney+ among online over-64s rising from 7% in 2022 to 12% in 2023.
This report from Ofcom shows that audiences are moving away from linear, down to 79% in 2022, which was at 90% 5 years ago. While younger audiences continued on their swing towards streaming platforms, a 21% drop in viewership is seen year on year for audiences between 4-34. The audience is becoming much more fractured, with the increase of streaming services, with fewer shows becoming huge draws for millions of viewers, as the UK had in the past.
The UK streaming market had a huge boost owing to the pandemic, which was naturally going to slow down when everyone returned to normal in 2022.
