Ahead of the streaming wars, Disney+ already seems to be putting dent into Netflix’s corner of the market, and although the dent may be small and more than manageable for the original streaming giant, it can still be considered an impressive feat for Disney+ with the streaming service still in its infancy. Variety has reported that at the end of November, Disney+ netted themselves a whopping 24 million subscribers in the US alone. What could only make this number sweeter for the mouse was the fact that a good chunk of the numbers may have come from individuals who canceled their Netflix subscriptions in favor of Disney’s new shiny toy.
According to Variety, these numbers come from a survey which results have been gathered in aggregate by a research team from Cowen & Co. 2500 US customers participated in this survey to give a general idea of Disney +’s subscriber base, a survey that revealed 21% of respondents subscribed to Dsiney’s new streaming service around November. Disney + gathering 24 million subscribers also exceeded expectations, as wall street analysts previously predicted that Disney+ would tap out around 20 million subscribers or less by the time 2020 rolled around.
Cowen & Co have estimated that Disney+ will be responsible for 1 million more households canceling Netflix in favor of Disney+ in 2019’s fourth quarter, and factoring in everything, over 5.1 million subscribers are set to cancel their subscriptions. The information gathered from Cowen & Co’s survey has also revealed that about 19.4 million consumers are subscribed to both Disney+ and Netflix. According to the analyst, “The incremental churn uptick [for Netflix] appears reasonable given the Disney+ launch, which has been highly publicized and includes various marketing programs, including a Verizon promotion that offers Disney+ for free for one year,”
The news gives Disney+ some momentum in the streaming wars, and may be foreshadowing the losses the streaming giant might experience the longer the wars continue.