While Netflix has been experiencing several problems related to its streaming platform for some time, it is Disney which, conversely, is beginning to seriously nibbling ground on its historical rival, through its Disney+ service.
Netflix caught up
In turmoil for a few weeks, Netflix lost 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the end of 2021. A first for 10 years for the American company. Moreover, the latter expects to lose two million more during the current quarter.
The causes, we know them. Let us recall the withdrawal of the service from the Russian market which caused the loss of several subscribers, but also the ever fiercer competition: Disney +, Amazon Prime Video or Apple TV +. Finally, the excessive sharing of accounts also represents a logical loss: the company estimates that more than 100 million households worldwide benefit from the service thanks to a password from another account. The “what are your codes“has never been so popular.
Result, the action of the American company fell on the stock exchange, the management became worried and took radical decisions. This has, for example, led to project cancellations, but also to layoffs, particularly in the animation sector.
Ads, sport, big content: Disney+ with great fanfare
The competition is there, and ever more formidable. Example: Disney+. The big-eared mouse grows bigger and bigger, and even nibbles away at its main rival.
Indeed, the entertainment giant Disney recorded a new jump in subscribers to its streaming platform, up 33% year on year. Today these are 137.7 million subscribers who can benefit from the content of the platform, i.e. 7.9 million more subscribers between the end of December and the beginning of April 2022.
This can be explained in several ways. Disney has added to its service ESPN+, a streaming platform specializing in sports, or even Hulu (only in the USA). Which therefore implies new targets that Disney+ may not have been used to.
On the other hand, the platform has in its catalog the new reality TV around the Kardashian family or How I Met Your Father. We should also mention the recent series on the case Oussekine, critically acclaimed. All this accompanied by the linchpins of the platform like the Marvel series (WandaVision, Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Moon Knight), or series Star Wars (The Mandalorian, The Boba Fett Book).
To accelerate its growth, the platform is counting on the launch of an offer with advertising by the end of the year in the United States, and in 2023 internationally (we know that Netflix, for its part, is thinking of an advertising-financed subscription, which could therefore be introduced in the last three months of 2022). But that’s not all, since Disney+ also plans to spend a total of $32 billion on content, including sports, in its 2022 fiscal year.
Speaking of sports, Disney CEO Bob Chapek also indicated that Disney is already thinking about offering a streaming version of ESPN that contains all of the sports television network’s programming, not just a limited selection like this. is the case for ESPN+.
This is how the gap, once substantial, is narrowing with Netflix: ” Our quarterly results have once again proven that we are in a league of their own “, assures the head of Disney, Bob Chapek, in commentary. We think Disney+ is one of a kind “.
The CEO of the giant with big ears believes that his group is on the right track to achieve its long-term goal: 230-260 million subscribers by the end of FY2024. For its part, Netflix currently has 221 million subscribers.
