Disney\u2019s Jimmy Kimmel affair may be over for now, but the company may have to grapple with the repercussions for some time: To what extent did the Kimmel suspension impact what has become the company\u2019s key growth driver, Disney+?<\/p>\n
While much of the talk about Kimmel has focused on the role of the FCC and local station owners like Sinclair and Nexstar in the decision, there was also a concerted (and very public!) pressure campaign to get consumers to cancel their subscriptions to Disney+. Even Howard Stern weighed in<\/a>, saying that he would forgo his Frozen and Encanto fix until Kimmel returned.<\/p>\n More from The Hollywood Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n So, did the campaign work? There are signs it might have played a role \u2026 but don\u2019t be surprised if we never know for sure. On Tuesday, Bank of America analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich wrote that she suspects there \u201cmay be a modest impact\u201d on subscriptions, but not only will it be hard to know how impactful the Kimmel element is, it may remain hidden from view.<\/p>\n While the Kimmel suspension and a surprise Disney+ price hike all happened in September (that\u2019s Disney\u2019s fiscal Q4), Reif-Ehrlich notes that the tricky timing of streaming billing cycles means that people that canceled in late September might not actually be reflected in subscriber counts until October, which would be Disney\u2019s fiscal Q1.<\/p>\n And last month, Disney said that it would stop breaking out<\/a> Disney+ subscriber numbers \u2026 beginning in its fiscal Q1 quarter.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe quarterly updates on the number of paid subscribers and ARPU have become less meaningful to evaluating the performance of our businesses,\u201d Disney CEO Bob Iger and CFO Hugh Johnston told investors. \u201cWhile we will no longer disclose subscribers and ARPU, we will provide information on Entertainment Direct-to-Consumer profitability.\u201d<\/p>\n And, as Reif-Ehrlich notes, the price hike effective in October means that the profitability is sure to rise, even if the company\u2019s subscriber numbers take a hit. The company has previously projected a \u201cmodest increase\u201d to Disney+ subscribers, with total Disney+ and Hulu subscribers expected to rise by about 10 million, owing mostly to a commercial deal with Charter for Hulu.<\/p>\n Kimmel could end up being the difference between a modest increase an a flat quarter, particularly if the independent journalist Marisa Kabas is correct that the company saw<\/a> about 1.7 million Disney+ cancelations during that window (though it isn\u2019t clear how many can be attributed to Kimmel versus the price increase).<\/p>\n The challenge for a company that is repositioning itself from the wholesale era of pay-TV to the direct-to-consumer era of today is that the direct relationship with consumers is a two way street. You get data and a relationship, sure, but you are also more exposed to their whims, frustrations and anger. If your user experience isn\u2019t up to snuff, or if your content becomes a hot potato, those subscribers can exit as quickly as they joined (or in many cases much faster, as The Washington Post learned recently).<\/p>\n It almost makes Needham analyst Laura Martin\u2019s suggestion that Disney \u201cshould shut down ABC\u201d to free itself of regulatory burdens sound downright appealing.<\/p>\n \u201cTactically, we recommend DIS launch simulcasts of all ABC broadcast content on Hulu (in addition to its ABC app), so DIS\u2019s viewers can always watch DIS\u2019s content on an unregulated platform, in order to preserve revenue,\u201d Martin wrote.<\/p>\n Would that get the FCC off of Disney\u2019s back? Maybe. Would it solves the sticky new problem of appealing to a wide swath of America through streaming subscriptions without alienating any individual group?<\/p>\n As Kimmel might see himself this week in Brooklyn if he happens to drive past one of the New York City Department of Transportation street signs<\/a> when exiting the borough: Fuhgeddaboudit.<\/p>\n Best of The Hollywood Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for THR’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Disney\u2019s Jimmy Kimmel affair may be over for now, but the company may have to grapple with the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":281925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[7299,145532,171,145533,11171,173,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-281924","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-disney","9":"tag-disney-ceo","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-jessica-reif-ehrlich","12":"tag-jimmy-kimmel","13":"tag-tv","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115327835034863003","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}