This may surprise many as Disney+ and Paramount+ are extremely popular, but both services are still not profitable. Disney+ currently has about 76.7 million subscribers as of the 3rd quarter of 2022. Paramount+ has about 46 million subscribers as of the 3rd quarter of 2022.
The problem, for now, is the high subscriber acquisition costs and content costs. Both Disney and Paramount are spending big to get new subscribers and add content. Adding in high start-up services costs, staffing, and more means both services are still not profitable.
It is being reported that Disney+ and Paramount+ are not expected to be profitable until 2024 or 2025 if everything goes well.
What is clear is that most streaming services right now are not profitable. Even large well, known streaming services are still not profitable in 2023.
The question now is how long will investors keep pouring money into unprofitable services to keep them afloat? Without deep-pocket companies like Disney or investors backing up smaller streaming services, many of them may soon run out of cash.
The truth is for many services, 2023 and 2024 may be make-it-or-break-it years, especially for services that don’t have large backers. So how many services will still be around at the end of 2024 is anyone’s guess, but it’s a safe bet that some won’t make it.