iWorld
Disney+ paid subs hit 103.6 mn, Disney+Hotstar accounts for around $34.5 mn subs
KOLKATA: With a higher-than-ever growth of streaming services in the last year, The Walt Disney Co.’s (Disney) direct-to-consumer venture Disney+ has also grown quickly to surpass 100 million subscribers.
Although its overall subscriber addition in q2 has fallen short of the Wall Street expectations, Disney+ paid subscribers have reached 103.6 million subscribers. Disney+Hotstar currently has nearly 34.5 million subscribers.
In the same quarter a year ago, Disney+ had 33.5 million subscribers. Although it has not been able to reach the expected 109 million subscriber base, the growth is indeed fast amid an array of big-ticket rivals. Along with the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, a bunch of new entrants HBO Max, Apple TV+ is also betting big on their streaming services.
“Results at Disney+ were comparable to the prior-year quarter as an increase in subscribers was largely offset by higher programming and production, marketing, and technology costs. The increases in subscribers and costs reflected the ongoing expansion of Disney+ including launches in additional markets,” the earnings press release mentioned.
Disney+ touched the milestone of 100 million subscribers in early March. It indicates the last month of the quarter has seen faster growth compared to the first two months, Disney CFO Christine McCarthy said in the earnings call.
“Between q1-q2, Disney+Hotstar was the strongest contributor to net subscriber addition and made approximately a third of total Disney+ subscriber base as of the end of q2. However, ARPU at Disney+Hotstar was down significantly compared to Q1 due to lower ad revenue as a result of the timing of the IPL cricket matches and impact of Covid in India,” McCarthy added further.
In the quarter, Disney+ reported an ARPU of $3.99 falling 29 per cent over the same quarter of last year. The decline in ARPU has been attributed to Disney+Hotstar as overall Disney+ ARPU excluding it was $5.61. However, the average monthly revenue per paid subscribe for Disney’s other streaming services ESPN+ and Hulu grew slightly.
Direct-to-Consumer revenues for the quarter increased 59 per cent to $4.0 billion and operating loss decreased from $0.8 billion to $0.3 billion, the company stated. The decrease in operating loss was due to improved results at Hulu, and to a lesser extent, at ESPN+, it added. Overall, the media conglomerate has around 159 million total subscribers across its streaming services as of the end of the q2.
iWorld
Meta plans 8,000 layoffs in new AI-led restructuring wave
First phase from May 20 may cut 10 per cent workforce amid AI pivot.
MUMBAI: At Meta, the future may be artificial but the cuts are very real. The social media giant is reportedly preparing a fresh round of layoffs, with an initial wave expected to impact around 8,000 employees as it doubles down on its artificial intelligence ambitions. According to a Reuters report, the first phase of job cuts is slated to begin on May 20, targeting roughly 10 per cent of Meta’s global workforce. With nearly 79,000 employees on its rolls as of December 31, the move marks one of the company’s most significant workforce reductions in recent years.
And this may only be the beginning. Sources indicate that additional layoffs are being planned for the second half of the year, although the scale and timing remain fluid, likely to be shaped by how Meta’s AI capabilities evolve in the coming months. Earlier reports had suggested that total cuts in 2026 could reach 20 per cent or more of its workforce.
The restructuring comes as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg continues to steer the company towards an AI-first operating model, committing hundreds of billions of dollars to the transition. Internally, this shift is already visible: teams within Reality Labs have been reorganised, engineers have been moved into a newly formed Applied AI unit, and a Meta Small Business division has been created to align with broader structural changes.
The trend is hardly isolated. Across the tech sector, companies are trimming headcount while investing aggressively in automation. Amazon, for instance, has reportedly cut around 30,000 corporate roles nearly 10 per cent of its white-collar workforce citing efficiency gains driven by AI. Data from Layoffs.fyi shows over 73,000 tech employees have already lost jobs this year, compared with 153,000 in all of 2024.
For Meta, the move echoes its earlier “year of efficiency” in 2022–23, when about 21,000 roles were eliminated amid slowing growth and market pressures. This time, however, the backdrop is different. The company is financially stronger, generating over $200 billion in revenue and $60 billion in profit last year, with shares up 3.68 per cent year-to-date though still below last summer’s peak.
That contrast underlines the shift underway. These layoffs are less about survival and more about reinvention. As Meta restructures itself around AI from autonomous coding agents to advanced machine learning systems, the question is no longer whether the company will change, but how many roles will be left unchanged when it does.
