Disney yesterday announced aggressive plans to boost its Disney+ streaming service, and the company’s subscriber total may soon eclipse the subscriber totals for Netflix.
Courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures
Adelia Cellini Linecker for Investor’s Business Daily:
At an investor day late Thursday, CEO Bob Chapek said Disney+ subscribers were at 86.8 million as of Dec. 2. That’s up from 73.7 million in early October and 60.5 million in early August.
Including Disney+, Hotstar, Hulu and ESPN+, the company’s streaming services have more than 137 million subscribers. In 2021, Disney+ will expand to Eastern Europe, South Korea, Hong Kong and other markets.
The company now expects to have 230 million-260 million Disney+ subscribers by 2024, up from its prior estimate of 60 million-90 million for the same time frame, with global subscriptions across all services reaching 300 million-350 million. By comparison, Netflix (NFLX) has 195.15 million subscribers.
MacDailyNews Take: With oodles of Disney, Pixar, Star Wars, Marvel, and more exclusive releases coming to Disney+ in the next few years, Netflix is facing overwhelming competition now. The easy days are over for Netflix. Competition among multiple strong services will likely work its magic to keep monthly prices down for consumers, too.