- Disney+ has established itself in the market, only a couple of months after its limited launch.
- The service is bound to grow bigger soon, as it is already competing with all the big fish in the pond.
- The only thing that Disney+ needs to do now is to add more exclusives, more originals, and more content in general.
Disney+, the most anticipated streaming platform of the past couple of years, has surpassed the 50 million subscribers milestone in just five months after its launch in November 2019, and this is just the beginning. Disney+ didn’t become available simultaneously worldwide, so the number of subscribers is sure to reach much higher figures. For example, the service just entered one of the world’s largest markets, India, on April 1, 2020. For Western Europe, Disney+ stepped in as a pre-sale option only two months ago. In any way we look at this, the growth of Disney’s streaming platform is impressive, to say the least.
So, what is it exactly that people find so convincing about Disney’s paid subscription offering, qualifying against the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime TV, HBO? First of all, it’s got all of Disney’s classics, such as “Beauty and the Beast” or the “The Little Mermaid”, and also Pixar animation films to keep the kids (and grown-ups) happy. Secondly, it’s got stuff straight from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, quenching people’s thirst for special-effects bolstered action. And then there are original series like the “The Mandalorian,” blowing the minds of Star Wars fans.
From a price consideration point of view, Disney+ starts at $6.99 per month or $69.99 for a full year. This is lower than Netflix’s standard-definition “Basic” tier, which is $8.99/month. That said, Disney+ entered the market with highly competitive pricing, and no premium subscription tiers. You are getting everything at 4K resolution streaming for less than $7 per month, without minimum subscription commitments and with no strings attached. It has undoubtedly played a key role in helping the streaming platform get a comfortable place in an already crowded and highly competitive market.
So, where does this latest success put Disney+ exactly? The last time Netflix announced numbers was in January 2020, and it counted 227 million users. Amazon Prime has also proliferated in the last few years, measuring a total of 156 million subscribers worldwide. Hulu is approaching 25 million users, Apple TV has 34 million subscribers, and HBO counts about 140 million users worldwide. All that said, Disney+ is off to a good start, but there’s a long way to cover still. Mostly, what they need to focus on now is the addition of more titles in the library, as the relatively small size of it remains one of the few drawbacks of the service.