How many subscribers canceled disney+ after the alleged kimmel firing and boycott?
Executive summary
Independent data firms and news outlets report a sharp, short-term spike in Disney+ and Hulu cancellations after ABC briefly suspended Jimmy Kimmel: Antenna’s data imply churn doubled for Disney+ (to about 8% in September) and research firms and outlets estimate roughly 3 million Disney+ cancellations in that month [1] [2] [3]. Other reporting and company disclosures show churn rose while sign-ups also climbed and Disney later stopped publicly reporting subscriber totals, complicating a simple “net loss” narrative [1] [3].
1. What the numbers published say — a surge, not a simple one-way loss
Subscription-research firms documented a clear spike in cancellations in September after Kimmel’s suspension. Antenna’s month-to-month churn figures showed Disney+ monthly churn roughly doubled from prior months to about 8% while Hulu rose to about 10% [4] [2]. Several mainstream outlets — The New York Times, The Guardian and Variety — reported Antenna’s data or similar analyses and translated the churn into headline numbers: roughly three million Disney+ cancellations in that month and about 4.1 million Hulu cancellations in the U.S. [2] [1].
2. How those headlines were constructed — methodology matters
Antenna and other third‑party firms measure cancellations, not necessarily permanent net losses. Antenna’s dataset excludes wholesale-distributed subscriptions (for example through some cable or telco bundles) and does not always capture re‑signups or plan switches; it counts cancellations during the billing month and compares them to prior-period baselines [1]. Variety and The Hollywood Reporter noted that Antenna does not include Disney’s wholesale distribution and that billing cycles can blur the timing of cancellation activity [1] [4].
3. Conflicting context: sign-ups and net subscriber movement
Multiple outlets reported that the cancellation spike coincided with increased sign-ups in September, which offset some of the cancellations. Variety and Axios both point out Disney+ and Hulu saw strong additions that month so the cancellation spike was not identical to a commensurate net decline in total subscribers [1] [3]. Axios, citing Antenna, argued that Disney+ gained a net of about 2.18 million new subscribers that September, which complicates claims that cancellations represented a permanent, equivalent decline [3].
4. Independent claims vs. company reporting — changing disclosure
Independent journalists and commentators circulated a high end “nearly 2 million in five days” figure and similar tallies [5]. But Disney’s own reporting practices changed: the company announced it would stop routinely disclosing subscriber totals for Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, which makes it harder for outsiders to reconcile short‑term cancellation spikes against long‑term net subscriber trends [1]. This limits the ability to verify some independent tallies against official rolling counts [1].
5. Political context and motive for cancellations
The cancellations followed a polarizing corporate decision — ABC briefly suspending Jimmy Kimmel after political pressure — that prompted coordinated boycott calls from celebrities, political actors and social‑media campaigns urging people to “Cancel Disney+.” Reporting from Business Insider, NBC and independent outlets document that many cancellations were explicitly motivated by the Kimmel decision, even as other factors (price increases, promotions expiring) were also in play around the same period [6] [7] [2].
6. What the estimates disagree on — scale, scope and permanence
Estimates disagree on scale and framing. Some independent reports amplified a near‑2 million or “over 1.7 million” short‑term cancellation figure for a narrowly defined window [5] [8]. Antenna’s broader monthly data were translated by outlets into an estimate of roughly 3 million U.S. Disney+ cancellations in September [2] [3]. Analysts and outlets cautioned these are cancellation counts for a month — not necessarily permanent subscriber losses — and sign‑up activity and wholesale channels muddy the net picture [1] [4].
7. Bottom line — what we can reliably say and what remains uncertain
Reliable: independent subscription-tracking data show cancellations spiked substantially in September after Kimmel’s suspension, and several outlets converted that to multi‑million cancellation counts [1] [2] [3]. Uncertain: how many of those cancellations were permanent net losses versus temporary churn or plan changes, because sign‑ups rose and Disney’s disclosure changes make cross‑checking difficult [1] [3]. Available sources do not mention an exact, company‑confirmed number attributable solely to the Kimmel boycott independent of price hikes or other churn drivers [1].
Sources cited: Antenna data and coverage in Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, The New York Times, Axios and related reporting [1] [4] [2] [3], plus contemporaneous coverage of boycott calls and motivations [6] [7] [5].