On November 12, 2019, a new streaming service was released by Disney called Disney Plus. This new service offers movies by Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and Disney original films. The subscription costs $7 a month or $5.83 per month if you buy a yearly subscription. Disney is also working to create new movies and tv shows to offer a wide variety of options. This new platform is cheaper than any other streaming platform before. The next cheapest streaming service is Netflix which costs $9. Since Disney is one of the few companies in the entertainment oligopoly they used their power to promote their new service. They currently have a promotion with Verizon that offers Verizon customers a free year of Disney Plus. This strategy will promote and get people interested in Disney Plus. Then when their free year is up they will renew their membership.
In addition to Disney's market power, they are partnering with Hulu and Espn to bundle their service. This will make their streaming service more dominate and will make them more competitive with Netflix. Along with that, they are making streaming available on Phones, tablets, computers, and Smart TVs. They also have an application on Xbox and Playstation. Since Disney has a dominant presence in the market they can easily market a new product through their connections and their platforms. Disney is also cutting deals with Netflix so that Disney movies are watched on their platform and not Netflix's. This is extremely powerful because many consumers have a subscription to Netflix to watch Disney movies. Now that they are canceling their contract Netflix customers will want to switch to Disney Plus.
After the first day, they already had 10 million subscribers. And that was only from one day and the release in three countries. Disney has plans to release Disney plus to Australia, New Zealand, and Puerto Rico on November 19. Then next year they will release the platform to the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, and Ireland. As Disney releases its platform around the world they will only become increasingly dominate.
The question looming is how will Disney plus effect the current streaming market. Could Disney Plus be a danger to Netflix or will Netflix maintain its loyal customers?
Chen, Connie. “Disney Plus: Everything You Need to Know about Disney's New Ad-Free Streaming Service.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 14 Nov. 2019, www.businessinsider.com/disney-plus.
Sorrentino, Mike. “Disney Plus: Here's Everything You Need to Know.” CNET, 14 Nov. 2019, www.cnet.com/news/disney-plus-streaming-service-everything-to-know-all-prices/.
I think the reason Disney+ became so popular as soon as it was released, is being able to watch movies from when they were kids brought nostalgia to a lot of people. I know a lot of people online mentioning they only bought it to re-watch old movies and get the same feeling as when they were a kid. I think this is a really powerful technique because it brings back a whole fan base of people to pay Disney again to watch the same movie.
ReplyDeleteI think that Disney+ will have an effect on Netflix. Since Disney produces so many movies, by releasing Disney+, they will be able to pull all of their products off other streaming services in order to populate theirs. This will have a great effect on all streaming services, not only Netflix. I think that people who subscribe to Netflix for TV shows will continue to use Netflix, but families who use Netflix for movies, might very well make the move to Disney+
ReplyDeleteI think that Disney+ will contribute to Netflix's downfall. Last year, Netflix lost more money than they gained due to TV services pulling shows to put them on their own streaming service. Highly popular shows such as Friends and The Office are expected to leave in the next year. As contracts expire, Netflix has to make the decision whether not to renew it and pay the TV service in order to keep it. But even if Netflix wants to renew it, the TV provider can choose to reject it. As Netflix loses more of its popular shows and movies, people will continue to switch to other streaming services.
ReplyDeleteSomewhat agreeing with Meera, I think the main reason I think that Disney may overpower Netflix is the simply because over time, Netflix has gotten rid of most original Disney shows off their stream. On the Netflix Website (https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/leaving-soon/disney-movies-leaving-netflix-in-2019-2020/) they even give a list of all the Disney movies, Marvel movies, and Star Wars Movies leaving Netflix. Since Netflix is the leading company of online movie and TV show streaming, for all the die hard Disney Fans, or even teens who want to watch nostalgic movies from their childhood, Disney+ is going to dominate.
ReplyDeleteWhile Disney+ may be receiving many subscribers, I have also heard that many people are also pirating their TV shows. For example, the eagerly awaited "Mandalorians" show already has at least 6 torrents in ThePirateBay (a file sharing site), and thousands of people have already downloaded the first episode. So if this trend keeps up, Disney+ may fail to overtake Netflix; then again, it happens with just about every TV show.
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