Not Just for Kids. Could Disney’s New Streaming Service Rival Netflix and Amazon Prime?
Disney have already smashed their subscriber target for Disney+ 4 years ahead of schedule.
By Holly Armstrong
Last week, The Walt Disney Co. reported its first quarterly loss since 2001, amounting to almost $5 billion. Disney’s theme parks in the US alone usually reach a daily combined total of almost 300,000 guests, meaning that the enforced closures over the past few months due to COVID-19 have contributed hugely to this quarterly loss, with revenues from theme park visits dropping by 85%
However, what may have slightly softened the blow of this loss is their recent milestone of hitting 100 million subscribers across all of Disney’s paid subscription services, which includes Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+. Even more impressively, more than half of these subscribers are from Disney+, their newest streaming platform, which only launched on 24th March this year.
Arguably, Disney couldn’t have timed the launch better. With lockdown measures being implemented in several countries across the globe, the growth of Subscription Video on Demand (SVoD) services has been huge, and every platform has reaped the benefits. The company reported their latest paid subscribers coming in at a huge 60.5 million and counting, smashing their goal of 60-90 million users four years early. Whilst this rapid growth could be attributed to the rather unusual circumstances of late, with a touch of beginners’ luck - if we can get away with calling Disney a beginner - there’s certainly potential for the platform to rival the leading players in the field.
Netflix reported a whopping total of 26 million new subscribers for 2020 so far, just shy of their 2019 total of 28 million, while Amazon Prime Video subscriptions accounted for 23% of all new SVoD services in the second quarter of the year. Interestingly, Disney+ also overtook NowTV as the third most popular paid-for streaming platform in the UK during this time.
Disney+ is expanding its catalogue daily, with plenty of new original content being created and added to the platform regularly, as well as the more sought-after classic material from the five channels that the platform encompasses - Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars & National Geographic. Beyoncé’s new visual album, Black Is King, inspired by her record The Gift created for the 2019 remake of The Lion King, released on Disney+ on 31st July 2020, drawing in a whole new audience of the ‘Beyhive’ to the platform.
The company recently announced a change of direction for their new feature film release calendar. A new live-action remake of the 1998 film Mulan, which was set to hit theatres this spring, will be released in September for an additional fee of $30 (£22) for users in the US, on top of the subscription fee of $6.99 per month. The choice to charge a fee has been met with mixed reviews, with some calling it daylight robbery, while others recognise the additional costs that inevitably accompany a trip to the cinema, making the difference nominal. The Drum posited the idea that the change in tack could open up a new “democratisation of cinema”, with viewers being given the choice between a more expensive cinematic experience or the cheaper alternative of an at-home viewing party, a trend popularised by Pay-Per-View boxing matches in recent years.
Potentially one of Disney+’s most highly-anticipated drops of the year in the world of SVoD was their unveiling of the live recorded performance of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s theatre phenomenon Hamilton, which premiered on Friday 3rd July. Over the weekend of its launch, the Disney+ app was downloaded over 750,000 times globally. However, the price of this growth did not come cheaply to Disney, who reportedly paid Miranda $75 million for the acquisition. IndieWire argues that this may have been a strategic move by Disney, with the potential to expand the show into a franchise, which, going by Miranda’s success with Hamilton as well as other productions, could become another cash cow for Disney to milk for years to come. While Lin-Manuel remains a ‘free agent’, his previous affiliation with the Walt Disney Co. has been extensive, having written the music for the 2016 musical Moana as well as starring in the 2018 remake of Mary Poppins Returns. Miranda is also due to collaborate with Disney legend Alan Menken on the upcoming live-action remake (we’re sensing a theme here) of The Little Mermaid.
While LMM is not tied into any contract with Disney regarding the future of Hamilton, there’s no denying that his existing relationship with the company is certainly strong enough to sustain the theory. Disney+ have already produced two additional pieces of content surrounding their promotional campaign of the show, including History Has Its Eyes on You, a talk show style discussion, hosted by broadcaster, Robin Roberts, both of which premiered on the platform the same day that the show was released. There’s certainly potential for Disney to expand and continue to capitalise on Hamilton’s rerun of success, five years after its original launch on Broadway, and there’s no doubt that its loyal army of fans will eat up every last crumb of the franchise they can get.
Some have argued that this run of success and the rapid growth for Disney+ won’t last, with Observer reporting a 50% drop-off in new subscriptions in the last quarter, despite initial success. However, we know that the company has the significant budget required to acquire more unique & exclusive content in future, and they’ve clearly dispelled any perception of the platform being a Netflix-for-kids. If they continue their successful run of drawing in a wide range of audiences with new original content, while keeping the die-hard fans interested with their canon of classics, I don’t see why they couldn’t rival some of the bigger players in the future.