Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension triggered a wave of Disney cancellations, revealing a surprising number of lost subscribers.NH
Politics and business rarely make good bedfellows. Just ask Disney.
The number of people who canceled subscriptions to Walt Disney Co.’s streaming services doubled following the company’s decision to take late-night host Jimmy Kimmel off the air last month in response to comments he made about the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
According to data compiled by Antenna, an analytics firm that studies subscriptions and viewership of major streaming services, the churn rate for Disney+ jumped to 8% in September, up from the 4% it has averaged monthly over the past year.
Churn refers to the percentage of subscribers who cancel a service in a given month.
Similarly, Hulu — which Disney also owns — saw its churn rate jump to 10% in September, up from its average of 5% per month over the past year, Antenna’s data showed.
Disney reported having 183 million Disney+ and Hulu subscribers worldwide at the end of its third fiscal quarter, which ended in June. That marked an 8% increase from the same period a year earlier, with about half of that gain coming from overseas.
A Disney source acknowledged that the company had seen a spike in cancellations in September but noted that the company’s internal data showed a churn rate that was lower than what Antenna had come up with. The person also noted that the rise coincided with a price increase for Disney+, which likely accounted for some of the cancellations.
The person also said it wasn’t clear if Antenna counted things like service upgrades and downgrades in the same way Disney does.
Disney decided on Sept. 17 to pull Kimmel’s show off ABC following remarks he made about the shooting of Kirk that drew a rebuke from the Trump administration and saw Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr put pressure on the network’s affiliate owners.
The move triggered calls for a boycott of Disney’s streaming services, including Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, as critics argued that Kimmel’s suspension under pressure from the government amounted to censorship.
Disney brought Kimmel’s show back after less than a week, after which the Disney source said some viewers also came back.
Analysts had predicted that a sustained boycott would likely have had some impact on Disney’s fortunes, as growth in streaming subscribers is a key metric for many investors, and any drop in those numbers — even in the short term — could cause problems for Disney’s stock.
Disney’s share price fell by more than 3% during the period that Kimmel’s show was suspended and has yet to rebound.
Similar politically driven boycotts in the past against Tesla Inc. , Anheuser-Busch InBev S.A.’s Bud Light and Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc. have also had an impact.
In 2023, Bud Light saw its sales decline by $1.4 billion and the company’s market capitalization drop by $27 billion following a boycott of the brand by conservatives angry over the appearance of a transgender comedian in an advertising campaign.
Tesla has seen its sales drop 13% year over year, with its liberal-leaning clientele expressing ire over CEO Elon Musk’s embrace of U.S. President Donald Trump as well as far-right politicians abroad.
Cracker Barrel reported a decline in revenue and an 8% drop in store visits after a makeover of its logo and stores angered its customers.
