Slowly but surely, Disney, the former forge of child-friendly entertainment, seems to be chasing the previous top dog Netflix with its streaming service.
When Disney+ launched in Germany in March 2020, nobody would have thought that the new streaming service would put a lot of pressure on Netflix in just two years. The reason: Due to new license agreements and ownership, Disney + pulled a lot of content from Netflix and is now offering it itself. Netflix, in turn, was not able to compensate for the loss of series and films due to the corona pandemic with its own productions so quickly. So while Netflix has lost good content, Disney+ has ramped up its offerings. But what is the secret of the success of the Mickey Mouse group?
Netflix vs. Disney+: streaming market leader against media giant
Anyone who associates The Walt Disney Company (WDC) with not much more than Mickey Mouse, “The Lion King” and perhaps, more recently, the Marvel Universe, will probably not even have half grasped the full importance of this media giant . In fact, today WDC is a network of almost countless corporate subsidiaries. Whether big US TV channels like ABC, film studios like Lucasfilm, publishers like Marvel or the Disneyland amusement parks and cruise company Disney Cruise Line – if it says media, Disney is in it today.
Even another media giant, 21st Century Fox, was not spared in 2019. Disney acquired 21st Century Fox and with it not only the venerable Hollywood studio Twentieth Century Fox, but also, for example, various cable channels and Fox’s international television business. No wonder, then, that Disney is one of the five largest media groups in the world with sales of over 78 billion US dollars (2020). Disney is ranked 36th in Forbes Global 2000, a list of the 2000 largest publicly traded companies in the world, published annually by the prestigious Forbes Magazine.
Given the global success of Netflix, it was only a matter of time before this giant would discover the streaming business for itself. Another powerful player entered the field in November 2019 with the specially founded subsidiary Disney+. And just under four months later, in March 2020, Disney+ also started in Germany. It’s safe to assume that Netflix has been taking a suspicious look at its mighty challenger Disney+ ever since. And the concern is justified.
Stock market reacts
The “Süddeutsche Zeitung” has just attested the market leader “too slow growth” in view of the forecast, disappointing figures for the first quarter of 2022. That is “the great weakness” of Netflix. Just 2.5 million new subscribers instead of the expected 6.9 million is already a clear sign of this weakness for investors. As a result, Netflix’s stock price collapsed by 25 percent two weeks ago.
Would you like to know what innovations the two streaming services currently have to offer? Here you will find the new series and films on Netflix and Disney+.
With a total of 222 million Netflix subscribers worldwide – Disney+ has “only” 118 million – that could still be dismissed as whining at a high level. The problem, however, is that unlike Netflix, Disney+ will probably still be able to grow in the coming years. The “SZ” reported last week that some journalists had a telephone junket with Bob Chapek. The Disney CEO announced that Disney+ will be available in 42 other countries from summer 2022. By 2023 they want to increase to 160 countries. And Chapek knew how to rub even more salt in the competitor’s wounds. “At the last Investor Day, we announced that we would increase spending on content to around eight or nine billion dollars per quarter by 2024.” These investments will now be increased even more, with a focus on regional and local productions, according to the head of the media group.
Untimely news that caused the Netflix course to drop another five percent.
There are hardly any signs that this could change in the foreseeable future – Disney+ is catching up, Netflix is stagnating or even losing, albeit at a high level. On the contrary: Chapek said they want to double the output of content in the coming years. Anyone who looks back at WDC’s purchasing policy over the past few years can imagine that these are more than just empty words. Whether Lucas Film and thus everything to do with the “Stars Was” universe, whether Marvel and its superheroes or the already mentioned 21st Century Fox – who, in view of this shopping crusade, still believes that Disney only has cartoons à la “Lion King”. offer, it is beyond help.
Disney+ scores with the price
In fact, Disney+ has plenty to draw on now and in the future. Already today you have series classics like “24”, “The X Files”, “Desperate Housewives”, “Grey’s Anatomy”, “The Walking Dead”, “How I Met Your Mother” or “Sons Of Anarchy” in the program. There are also big movies like “96 Hours”, “Deadpool”, “The Martian”, “Kingsman”, “The Shoe of Manitou” or “Maze Runner”. The full universes of Marvel and “Star Wars” as well as offers from the 21st Century Fox fund are also expected in the future.
So the weights could actually shift even further away from Netflix and towards Disney+. Especially since the content is probably the most important, but by no means the only argument for the attractiveness of the new star in the streaming sky. Because of course the flat rate of 8.99 euros is also a declaration of war. The basic subscription from Netflix only costs 7.99 euros, but the premium subscription is a whopping 17.99 euros. Okay, but then you also get Ultra HD quality for all content that is available in 4K, and streaming is allowed on up to four devices at the same time. It’s just stupid that you can get all that and more at Disney + for the said 8.99 euros.
Netflix has made cinema history with its own productions
But you certainly don’t have to write Netflix off, see also the lead in terms of subscriber numbers already mentioned. Netflix is still home to some of the most artistically outstanding and/or successful series of recent years, some of which have also been produced in-house. Netflix Originals like Stranger Things, When They See Us, Ozark, Peaky Blinders, Mindhunter, Money Heist, Lupin, Bridgerton, The Crown, Orange is the New Black” and of course “Squid Game” have long since found their deserved place in the history of TV series.
And what applies to the series also applies to the (cinema) films. “Schindler’s List”, “The Revenant”, “Shining”, “The Convicted”, “GoodFellas” or the “Harry Potter” series are representative of the range of outstanding works in cinema history of the past decades. And when it comes to movies, it’s probably the Netflix Originals that could keep some people from switching to Disney+. “The Irishman”, “Mudbound”, “Power of the Dog”, “Roma”, “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” really stand for “big cinema”.