Disney wins this round: Here’s where the streaming giants stand at the end of earnings season
This round, Disney beat Netflix.
Disney’s continued growth, juxtaposed with a disappointing quarter for Netflix, was the big story of this quarter’s earnings season. Disney benefited from a handful of popular movies that it placed directly on its Disney+ service in the quarter ended June 30, such as “Cruella” and “Luca,” while Netflix is banking on a return to growth next quarter, when hit originals such as “Sex Education” and “Money Heist” return to the service.
Disney+ and Hotstar, Disney’s Indian streaming service, added 12.4 million new subscribers from last quarter, while Netflix added just 1 million new customers. Last quarter, Disney added almost 9 million new Disney+ subscribers and Netflix added about 4 million new customers.
“Last quarter, we had a little bit of weakness in streaming subs both at Netflix and Disney. The weakness continued for Netflix, but it didn’t for Disney,” said Mark Zgutowicz, an analyst at Rosenblatt Equity Research, in a CNBC interview. “Disney+ is about 90 million subs behind Netflix globally now. With this number today, it’s tracking toward a 20 million net add gain on Netflix this year.”
All of the big streaming video players have reported earnings this quarter. The following is a rundown of where all the major streaming services stand:
Netflix
- 209 million global paying subscribers (Up 1 million from last quarter)
- 73.95 million subscribers in U.S. and Canada
- ARPU for U.S. and Canada: $14.54
Disney
- Disney+ (including Hotstar): 116 million subscribers, $4.16 global ARPU (Up 12.4 million from last quarter)
- Hulu SVOD only: 39.1 million subscribers, $13.15 ARPU
- Hulu SVOD+Live TV: 3.7 million subscribers, $84.09 ARPU
- ESPN+: 14.9 million subscribers, $4.47 ARPU
Amazon Prime Video
- More than 175 million Amazon Prime members have streamed shows and movies in the past year (No updates given during second-quarter earnings)
- Prime memberships cost $12.99 a month or $119 a year, but offer many benefits other than streaming video — including free one-day or two-day shipping on most Amazon packages. Amazon does not break out ARPU by Prime members.
Apple
- Apple TV+ subscribers: ? (No updates given during second-quarter earnings)
- ARPU: ?
Apple‘s free one-year trials to Apple TV+, which it gives away with new hardware such as iPhones, are now starting to expire for many customers, which could spur the company to offer an update on its next earnings call.
NBCUniversal’s Peacock
- 54 million “signups” (Up 12 million from last quarter)
- More than 20 million monthly active accounts
- ARPU: ?
- Three tiers: Free with commercials, $4.99 a month for fewer ads and more content, $9.99 a month ad-free
Comcast‘s NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC, successfully used the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Games to push Peacock subscriptions. NBCUniversal will likely add more Olympics-related signups next quarter, as it reported Peacock statistics only about half way through the Games.
While the company has not released an official figure for ARPU yet, NBCUniversal estimated in January that Peacock would deliver $6 to $7 a month across its three tiers.
WarnerMedia’s HBO and HBO Max
- 67.5 million global subscribers (Up 3.6 million)
- 47 million domestic subscribers (Up 2.8 million)
- ARPU: $11.90 domestically
AT&T raised its year-end global subscriber forecast for HBO Max to 73 million from 70 million in its second-quarter earnings statement. As of March, it expects 120 to 150 million subscribers by the end of 2025.
ViacomCBS
- More than 42 million subscribers across Paramount+, Showtime, Noggin, BET+, and other platforms (Up about 6.5 million, the “overwhelming majority” of which came from Paramount+)
- Over 52 million monthly average Pluto TV users (Up 2 million)
- ARPU: ?
Average revenue per user remains a question mark for ViacomCBS, which has still chosen not to reveal the statistic.
“We’ve been on a journey of increased disclosure over time,” ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish told CNBC. “We will continue to evolve disclosure.”
Discovery
- 18 million direct-to-consumer subscribers as of Aug. 3 (up 3 million)
- Overall ARPU: About $7 per month
- ARPU for ad-supported Discovery+: More than $10 per month
Starz
- 28.9 million global subscribers (Down 600,000), 16.7 million of which are streaming
- ARPU: About $6 per month
Lionsgate‘s Starz actually lost total subscribers in the quarter, though the decline relates to cancellations of the company’s linear service. Streaming customers rose 58% year-over-year to 16.7 million globally.
AMC Networks
- Total subscribers: ?
- ARPU: ?
AMC Networks said earlier this month it expects to have at least 9 million paid streaming subscribers across its platforms by the end of the year. The company’s flagship streaming product is AMC+, which may see a boost in subscribers after signing a deal with Verizon earlier this week, giving certain subscribers a free trial of the product for 6 or 12 months.
Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.
WATCH: Why this analyst is staying neutral on Disney despite earnings beat
Technology
How Broadcom’s big OpenAI deal fits into the data center boom and what it means for the AI trade
Oracle CEO, Clay Magouyrk, sits down with CNBC’s David Faber on Oct. 13, 2025.
CNBC
Oracle CEO Clay Magouyrk, one of the two people tapped last month to lead the software company, is confident that OpenAI will be able to cover the costs of the massive amount of cloud infrastructure services it consumes.
In an interview with CNBC’s David Faber at Oracle’s AI World conference on Monday, Magouyrk said “of course” OpenAI can pay $60 billion for a year’s worth of cloud resources. In July, OpenAI agreed to a five-year deal with Oracle that’s worth over $300 billion.
“Just look at the rate at which they’ve grown to, you know, almost a billion users. That’s just unheard of,” said Magouyrk, who sat alongside fellow Oracle CEO Mike Sicilia for the interview in Las Vegas.
OpenAI said last week that its flagship ChatGPT chatbot, which was publicly launched less than three years ago, now has 800 million weekly active users. In 2024, OpenAI recorded a $5 billion net loss.
Sicilia said Oracle has started integrating OpenAI artificial intelligence models into a patient portal for viewing electronic health records. Oracle acquired EHR vendor Cerner for about $28 billion in 2022.
“I’ve seen the results, and I really do think that they’re going to have a dramatic impact on industries, on enterprises of all types,” Sicilia said of OpenAI.
OpenAI rents out Nvidia graphics chips to run models through Oracle, as well as CoreWeave, Google and Microsoft. At the same time, the company is designing a custom AI processor that Broadcom will build. Earlier on Monday, Broadcom and OpenAI said they will jointly deploy 10 gigawatts worth of the new OpenAI chips.
Building out that much infrastructure requires a hefty amount of new energy.
“I think it’s a factor of time, not a factor of if we’ll have enough power,” Sicilia said.
Oracle shares rose almost 6% on Monday. The stock has gained 86% this year, lifting Oracle’s market cap close to $900 billion.
WATCH: Oracle CEO Magouyrk: ‘Of course’ OpenAI can pay $60 billion per year
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