Disney+ and Hulu’s monthly churn rates doubled in September as consumers threatened to boycott the streaming services following the temporary suspension of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” over comments the late night host made about Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin.
Per new data from Antenna, Disney+ had around 2.18 million sign-ups during the month, while Hulu had just over 2.1 million sign-ups. But the former’s monthly churn rate jumped from 4% in August to 8% in September, while latter’s increased from 5% in August to 10% in September.
An Antenna spokesperson told TheWrap that the estimated cancellation volumes for Disney+ and Hulu totaled 3 million and 4.1 million, respectively, compared to the averages of 1.2 million and 1.9 million, respectively, in the last three months. When asked what caused the spike, the firm declined to directly attribute those cancellations solely to Kimmel’s suspension.
A Disney spokesperson declined to comment on the figures, though it’s important to note that Antenna’s methodology does not include the company’s wholesale business. The data, which does not specify whether subscribers upgraded or downgraded from their current plan to a new one, also shows that sign-ups were higher for Disney+ than Hulu in recent months.
An insider told TheWrap that Antenna’s percentages are higher than what Disney is seeing internally. Though the individual said there were increases in pending cancellations in September, it rapidly subsided. They also attributed some of the cancellations to the pre-planned price increase notifications, which will take effect starting Tuesday.
The insider added that Disney has also seen some streaming subscribers who canceled reinstate their subscriptions and that Kimmel’s ratings surged following his return.
When looking at streaming cancellations across services for the month, the weighted average churn rate was 7%. Apple TV+ climbed from 6% to 7%, HBO Max climbing from 7% to 9% and Discovery and Netflix each held steady at 6% and 2%, respectively.
Apple TV+ had a total of around 1.98 million sign-ups, Discovery+ had 265,543 sign-ups, HBO Max had around 1.86 million sign-ups, Netflix had 1.6 million sign-ups, Paramount+ had 2.98 million sign-ups and Peacock had 2.72 million sign-ups.
Separately, Antenna estimates that Disney’s new ESPN streamer saw 2.1 million sign-ups from launch on Aug. 21 through Sept. 30, while Fox One saw 1.1 million sign-ups. Those figures do not include existing Disney subscribers who switched from other plans, or individuals who activated the service through their pay TV provider.
Antenna calculates churn by the cancels in a given month divided by subscribers at the end of the previous month. The monthly churn rate includes involuntary churn, such as credit card declines.
The firm’s data, which solely covers the U.S., is based on digital purchase and cancellation receipts, consumer subscription signals, credit, debit and banking data. It includes sign-ups directly through the services, as well as Amazon Channels Amazon Fire TV, the Disney Bundle, Google Play, Hulu, iTunes, the Paramount bundle, Roku apps, The Roku Channel, YouTube TV and YouTube Primetime Channels, as well as subscribers on free trials.
The data from Antenna comes as Disney has not publicly revealed how many streaming subscribers may have canceled due to Kimmel’s suspension. It is set to report its latest quarterly subscriber figures for Disney+ and Hulu on Nov. 13.
Disney will no longer report subscribers and average revenue per user for ESPN+ starting this quarter, while Disney+ and Hulu will no longer report the metrics starting in the company’s first quarter of 2026.
Disney shares are up 15% in the past year and 32% in the past six months, but are down 1.16% in the past month.
