What happened
Shares of media giant Walt Disney (DIS 0.54%) jumped on Wednesday, closing the trading day up 7.25%.
The stock's gain follows news that the company's Disney+ streaming service, launched just the day before, has already surpassed 10 million subscribers.
Image source: Walt Disney.
So what
The service is seeing "extraordinary demand," Disney said in a press release on Wednesday. It costs $6.99 per month or $69.99 per year, and includes 500 films from Disney-owned studios like Marvel, Lucasfilm, and its namesake Walt Disney brand, and 7,500 episodes of TV shows.
The service is part of the company's strategy to evolve to a direct-to-consumer business model.
It would be difficult to overstate what a significant achievement it is to gain 10 million subscribers in such a short period of time. Analysts, on average, were predicting Disney+ would attract 10 million to 18 million subscribers within its first year.
Now what
Investors will want to continue to keep an eye on Disney+ subscriber figures in future quarterly updates. Pent-up demand for the service and heavy marketing by Walt Disney leading up to its launch likely played a significant role in the service's first-day success. Investors should look for more meaningful subscriber growth in the coming quarters as the service rolls out to other markets.
