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As Hollywood giants focus on making their streaming businesses profitable, they have started raising the subscription prices for the likes of Disney+ and HBO Max. In contrast, streaming giant Netflix is dropping some of its prices in more than 100 international markets.

“Effective immediately Netflix is to drop monthly subscription pricing in more than 100 territories globally,” but not in North America and Western Europe where average revenue per user is higher, Ampere Analysis research manager Toby Holleran wrote on Wednesday. “The SVOD incumbent’s basic tier will record the highest percentage drop across a large number of territories. These territories, which span Central and South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, Central and Eastern Europe and the Asia Pacific regions will see discounts for the basic tier range from 20 percent to nearly 60 percent, with the price drop kicking in instantly for new and existing subscribers.”

This Netflix price drop affects “more than 10 million,...

As the dust settled on Netflix’s latest earnings disclosure — the streaming giant brought in 7.66 million subscribers during the fourth quarter of 2022 and now tops 230.75 million globally, it said Jan. 19 — one region stood out in the company’s closely watched filings. Europe, the Middle East and Africa (Emea) quietly became the streamer’s biggest region in terms of subscribers, overtaking the combined user figure for the U.S. and Canada during the second half of 2022.

As of the end of the year, Netflix had about 2.4 million more subscribers in Emea than North America after being roughly 310,000 behind it as of mid-year 2022. “Netflix is still above and beyond all other subscription video players in Emea in terms of subscription figures, finishing 2022 with almost as many subscribers (76.7 million) as both Disney+ and Amazon combined (81 million),” notes Toby Holleran, research manager at research firm Ampere Analysis. “However, on a video subscription revenue perspective,...

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Walking the streets of any major European capital, you’d be forgiven if you’d forgotten that there’s a soccer World Cup starting in two days. Typically, ahead of the globe’s biggest sporting event — the official kickoff is Sunday, Nov. 20, in Doha, Qatar — every main street on this soccer-mad continent would be plastered with billboards, and every TV commercial break packed with World Cup ads.

This time, it’s different.

Controversy over the decision to host the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, a country with a troubling human rights record, where homosexuality is still illegal, hangs over this year’s event.

“We note that major advertisers’ interest in using the World Cup to promote their brands seems muted compared to previous tournaments,” Enders Analysis analysts Tom Harrington and Gill Hind wrote in a recent report. Asked about the topic by The Hollywood Reporter,...

Investors are not an easy crowd to shock, but Disney CEO Bob Iger managed to induce at least two audible gasps when unveiling his company’s long-awaited Disney+ streaming service on Thursday afternoon. The first was the news that “The Simpsons” would move all of its 30 seasons over to Disney+ — a sign of just how extensive the company’s library is since its $71 billion Fox acquisition — and the second came with the $6.99 monthly subscription price.

The whole event amounted to Iger firing a warning shot: This is what a true Netflix competitor looks like. But is it a Netflix killer?

Not likely, according to several media and business experts. Instead, once Disney+ launches on November 12, a new streaming landscape is expected to emerge: Netflix atop the hill, followed by Disney+, with a wide chasm separating the two services and the rest of their competitors.

“The question is, will anybody drop...