One of the key trends we have seen in the entertainment sector is the rise of digital media and the emergence of streaming sites in general. In earlier days, we used to see that the people were comfortable downloading files on their phone and watching them in their free time. However, there has been quite a huge campaign regarding privacy since most of the downloaded content was from torrent sites. Also, the data becoming cheaper has meant that people now stream a lot of content rather than downloading it and adding up to storage space.
Amidst all these, streaming platforms such as Netflix which has been available for decades now and also the young upstart known as Disney+ backed by the biggest entertainment company Walt Disney have seen huge growth. However, it is seen that Disney+ has made a huge impact on Netflix’s growth ever since it came into existence less than 3 months ago. The impact has been so much that Netflix has even lowered its expectations at the start of this year. They have also revealed that the start of 2020 will be difficult for them.
Now, this was also expected before the launch of Disney+ so we can’t say that this was totally unexpected. And the reason is that contents of Netflix and Disney+ were mostly similar in nature and Netflix even had Disney content which was removed by Disney to have it exclusively on their own platform. This resulted in people who were subscribed to Netflix only for Disney content switch to Disney+.
However, a letter to investors from Netflix still sounds optimistic as it reveals that “Despite the big debut of Disney+ and the launch of Apple TV+, our viewing per membership grew both globally and in the U.S. on a year over year basis, consistent with recent quarters,”
