Disney vs Netflix
Emailed on November 15th, 2019 in The Friday Forward
I know you've been inundated with Disney+ ads, so I'll keep this short.
Disney looks to be putting together the case study for "sticking it to Silicon Valley disruptors" with the launch of their Disney+ streaming service.
Disney said Wednesday that it hit more than 10 million sign-ups on its first day, far exceeding expectations (some analysts had them at 10 million after the first *year*).
Most folks attribute the allure to anchor content universes like Marvel and LucasFilm, which Disney acquired for around $4B each not long ago.
That sounded like a lot at the time but is looking like a pretty strong investment this week. For comparison, Netflix bought the rights to Seinfeld, and only Seinfeld, for $500M for 5 years. Hard to imagine what Marvel and LucasFilm would go for today.
But Netflix isn't rolling over: There's still a lot more to this story. One day after the launch of Disney+, Netflix and Nickelodeon announced a new multi-year deal to produce original animated series based on original Nickelodeon characters.
And Netflix has proven time and again the way to win this game is retention, not acquisition. What remains to be seen is how Disney can retain 10M subscribers after their free 7-day trial and more over the next years. Netflix has has gained 158 million subscribers since launching in 2007 and unparalleled customer retention compared to other streaming services.
