The The Walt Disney Company said it will no longer publish quarterly subscriber totals for Disney+ and Hulu, shifting investor attention toward streaming profit, revenue and margin as the business matures. The change took effect with Disney’s fiscal first-quarter 2026 report, covering the period ended Dec. 27, 2025.
Disney had flagged the reporting change months earlier. In executive commentary released with results in August 2025, CEO Bob Iger and CFO Hugh Johnston wrote that quarterly updates on paid subscribers and average revenue per user had become “less meaningful” for evaluating performance, and said Disney would keep disclosing direct-to-consumer profitability.
The new approach arrives as Disney’s streaming unit posts meaningful earnings. Disney reported SVOD operating income of $450 million for the quarter, up $189 million year over year, on SVOD revenue growth of 11%, and said higher subscription and affiliate fees and theatrical revenue were offset by higher programming, production and marketing costs inside the Entertainment segment.
Across the company, Disney reported revenue of about $26.0 billion, up 5%, and adjusted earnings per share of $1.63, down from a year earlier but ahead of analyst expectations cited by market trackers. Disney highlighted box-office strength from Zootopia 2 and Avatar: Fire and Ash as a tailwind for its entertainment engine.
Disney also disclosed a hit to its sports results tied to a temporary carriage dispute with YouTube TV, which it said reduced segment operating income by roughly $110 million. Its Experiences unit produced record quarterly revenue of $10.0 billion and operating income of $3.3 billion.
Media investors have grown accustomed to companies de-emphasizing subscriber counts as streaming shifts from land-grab growth to monetization. Netflix made a similar move, and some analysts have argued that fewer subscriber datapoints can make it harder to benchmark services and model future growth, even as companies point to profit metrics as the better yardstick.
