There is no doubt that Disney+ has reached a milestone – Disney CEO Bob Igers announces in a recent quarterly report to investors that the streaming service now has over 73 million subscribers, according to Washington Post.
The news at the same time as Disney admits that the company has had a general decline in revenue this year due to, among other things, problems with keeping various amusement parks open, but also difficulties in getting spectators to go to the cinema and watch big movies. Nevertheless, the power service pulls up the result, since it all goes so it laughs only one year after launch in the US.
Disney is still far from Netflix’s 200 million users, but since Disney + is a service that has only existed for a year in some parts of the world – while many, like Norway, had to wait until September 2020 to take part in the streaming festivities – so is this is still a monumental membership, and says a lot about how broad Disney content is.
The year that is now ebbing out has been characterized by a lot of sitting, which has undoubtedly helped Disney + on its way to the big numbers. The shutdowns that have affected the world have forced people to entertain themselves at home, and the power services have been among those who have been ready to fill the voids. Nevertheless, the industry has been characterized by recording breaks and unusual production times, which has also been the case for Disney + and upcoming movies and TV series such as “WandaVision” and «The Falcon and The Winter Soldier» – and has meant that many viewers have been on the hunt for new content.
The fact that “Hamilton” was available early, and that the big movie “Mulan” was launched in many countries (we have to wait until December 4 here in Norway), may have helped too many – while season two of “The Mandalorian” continues to be the big draw.
The subscriber numbers for Disney + are in stark contrast to those seen on Apple TV +, which as of today is about half. Analysts at Statista It is estimated that the service will have 40 million users by the end of 2020, and these figures are not entirely unproblematic. Given that Apple is giving new iPhone and MacBook owners a year of free use of the service, the number of subscribers is not representative of actual paying customers.
Apple TV + was also launched in November last year, which means that none of those who have used the free year that Apple offers have yet had to deal with paying anything. The coming months will provide a better starting point for assessing how Apple TV + is doing in relation to Netflix and Disney+.
Postponements, postponements, postponements
It has been a difficult year for film and TV production. We now have to wait until January 2021 for the Marvel series “WandaVision”, and other programs such as «Hawkeye» and “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” will not be on its way to Disney + until well after this, although the former was originally planned to be launched this year.
Similar problems have been in the cards also for Netflix, where both season four of «Stranger Things», as well as season two of «The Witcher» have struggled with constant delays.
Apple TV + has nevertheless managed, slowly but surely, to expand the somewhat meager amount of content this year, and has, for example, received the drama comedy “Ted Lasso”, not to mention Sofia Ford Coppola’s “On the Rocks”, out the door. Still, the Apple platform lacks an exclusive mass production similar to “The Mandalorian”, and others who made the launch of Disney + a success, or “Stranger Things”, which helped cement Netflix as the most popular service in the world right now.
A lot can change in a year, but given that the difficulties with the recordings (and therefore also the launches) of new films and series persist, everyone is the same, and it does not seem that the streaming platforms will get it easier with the very first.