Disney/ABC brought back Jimmy Kimmel Live last week, after not even a full week’s suspension. Unlike so many of the other media capitulations, Jimmy Kimmel was someone to rally behind and the pushback on Kimmel’s suspension was an immediate story across media, culture and headline news. Disney-affiliated artists spoke out about Kimmel. One of the most effective counterattacks: people began dropping their Disney, Hulu and ESPN subscription en masse. As Puck News noted, “Online boycotts like this don’t usually amount to much, especially in the long term. But certain moments can gain traction. As one financial analyst told me, Bob Iger undoubtedly wanted to minimize a subscriber exodus just as the company’s fourth fiscal quarter ended.” So just how bad was it? Reportedly, more than 1.7 million people dropped their subscriptions.
Disney lost 1.7 million paid streaming subscribers who cancelled service in the immediate aftermath of ABC pulling Jimmy Kimmel from the airwaves, according to journalist Marisa Kabas. Kimmel’s show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, was suspended for a week after President Donald Trump’s FCC pressured local TV stations to drop the late-night host, though he’s since been returned to the air.
“Disney saw more than 1.7 million total paid streaming cancelations during the period 9/17-9/23, a Disney source confirms to me. The total includes Disney+, Hulu and ESPN,” Kabas wrote on Bluesky Monday.
Kabas reports that 1.7 million was 436% above a subscriber loss that’s typical for the same period, though Disney didn’t immediately respond to Gizmodo’s questions about the report. Kabas broke a story last week in The Handbasket about a planned price increase for Disney+. Disney announced Kimmel was coming back shortly before the price increase was officially announced.
Calls to cancel Disney-owned streaming services went viral across several social media platforms as a way to express discontent with Disney’s decision. And it’s not clear how many subscribers may plan to return since Kimmel is back on the air.
Puck’s sources hilariously suggested that the increase in cancellations were only six times the normal number, or that the number was little more than a minor accounting blip. 1.7 million is a huge number which represents billions of dollars lost. Which is why Disney’s shareholders are still demanding answers to how Bob Iger f–ked this up – Deadline had a fascinating story about the shareholders’ legal threats, and we should hear more about that this week.
Photos courtesy of ABC/JKL and Avalon Red.
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- Bob Iger arrives at the Oscar Nominee Luncheon held in the International Ballroom at the Beverly Hilton on Monday, 13 February 2023.,Image: 756003773, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: ©A.M.P.A.S. All rights reserved. 310-247-3000., Model Release: no, Credit line: PAP / Avalon
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- Jimmy Kimmel hosts the live ABC telecast of the 95th Oscars® at the Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 12, 2023.,Image: 762329065, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: LCY / Avalon
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- Bob Iger, Willow Bay arrive on the red carpet of the 97th Oscars® at the Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 2, 2025.,Image: 971235147, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** EDITORIAL USE ONLY! * NB: Fees charged by Avalon are for Avalon’s services only, and do not, nor are they intended to, convey to the user any ownership of Copyright or License in the material. Avalon does not claim any ownership including but not limited to Copyright or License in the attached material. By publishing this material you (the user) expressly agree to indemnify and to hold Avalon and its directors, shareholders and employees harmless from any loss, claims, damages, demands, expenses (including legal fees), or any causes of action or allegation against Avalon arising out of or connected in any way with publication of the material. * Handling Fee Only ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red/Avalon
Quick math- if people don’t go back to disney/hulu (like me!) their capitulation to white supremacy costs them approx $34M per month. That makes me happy.
I just got Andor on dvd, i have a bootleg of the eras tour movie. Except for sentimental holiday cartoons (chip and dale in the tree anyone?) i don’t need my $20/month hulu/disney subscription.
And i only wanted espn to see Jason Kelce on the Monday Night Football countdown- and even adding disney for $5 did not accomplish that. You have to be willing to pay like $60 for live tv to do that.
No thanks, i’ll just want clips of Jason being fabulous.
Glad to know I have lots of company! I had a bundled Hulu-Disney subscription for $12. I’m coming under a lot of pressure within the family to resubscribe to Hulu for Only Murders in the Building, though.
Is that Willow Bay? Reporter or newsreader? Married to Iger apparently.
I never had Disney+ or their subsidiary streaming services, but I canceled Paramount+ in solidarity, lol. They were responsible for the Colbert fuckery and I was too lazy to cancel then.
When Disney’s one of the former executives (someone who must be invested in the company) spoke up, I knew that Disney was losing a significant amount of money. Losing millions of subscribers especially when there are lots of competition out there for subscription services is a huge deal and it would be harder to gain them back unlike those who cancel due to the price. At least, Paramount gave some financial reasons for firing Colbert like ratings, expenses, etc. Disney didn’t even bother with lying, they were very obviously bending down for Trump and their affiliates that don’t even have the power of Disney. The legend of Disney having the most hard-hitting lawyers in the world seems to be in the past since they caved so easily when tested.
I cancelled on 9/24. Ha. Did the math. That’s about $30m a month in lost revenue for Disney, but I’m sure some will resubscribe.
When the new season of Paradise is available, I admit I will be hard pressed not to re-subscribe. Until then FU Disney.
I cancelled my Disney+/Hulu bundle, and then, when I saw how little I missed it, cancelled my Paramount subscription. At this rate, I may divest myself of all paid streaming services except Netflix and Amazon Prime. Those two, with a few freebies like PlutoTV, Tubi, and the Roku Channel are more than enough. I replaced Disney with BritBox, which I ADORE. If you like British TV, BritBox is where it’s at.
Last summer my partner and I felt like we were watching too much tv so we cancelled most of our streaming subscriptions (with each of us keeping one) to see what we missed. I kept BritBox, he kept HBO, and we both consider having PBS passport a non-negotiable. We ended up saving about $100 a month and really don’t miss any of them, but I absolutely could not have given up BritBox. We used to get Paramount during football season but since the Browns’ owners cheated taxpayers into paying for their stadium and are big funders for the outrageous gerrymandering in Ohio my partner has given up his multi-generational family Browns fandom and we don’t need access to football games anymore. It turns out life with fewer oligarchs is just fine.
Gore Vidal wrote a great essay (actually he wrote hundreds, perhaps thousands of them) years ago about how it would finally be up to the Mighty Mouse to take on fascism in America. In that corporations would have to defend civil liberties, and Disney in particular, because in a truly childlike and tender way, they are the keepers of the dream, as Susan Sarandon (a close Vidal friend) pointed out. Millions of Americans have vivid and primal memories of Disney films. And now they’ve gone up against MAGA and won one, vs deSantis in Florida, and tied one, in this case. So they need another win. Three strikes and all.
I cancelled and have no intention of paying $25 for that bundle that still includes ads. Forget it.
I think part of the problem is once a subscriber is gone for a while, they are GONE. Curious to see how many people sign up again and at a higher rate. Poor timing on the rate increase.