95 million subscribers. Variety reported the numbers Thursday. Not bad for a two-year-old service is it? Netflix started the whole subscription streaming game and it has over 203 million. But that’s since streaming was essentially born. It has been a streaming service since 2007. So in 14 years, Netflix has built an Amazing empire of subs across the world. But in just two Disney+ has almost half that.
Keep in mind that this is the service that didn’t have enough original content when it launched. This was the service that was just really nice for kids but didn’t have anything for anyone else. Yeah. Well apparently 95 million subscribers found something they liked. This success should not be a surprise to anybody with an understanding of Disney’s branding but somehow it surprises people. And this juggernaut (which Disney owns the rights to) is just getting started. There is a whole army of originals built on their brands about the come crashing down on its competition. And I’m sorry, arguments about franchise fatigue sound pretty erroneous against the sound of a certain green baby. Those fan bases are enormous and they are eating everything Disney is pushing out and asking for more like Oliver Twist with a case of the munchies.
Disney sandbagged its hopes. It’s fairly obvious. Disney+ has smashed its four-year projected totals in two. It did the same thing with its one-year totals. And now the rest of the story. Disney’s combined numbers with Hulu and ESPN+ gives the company 146 million subscribers across its platforms. Disney has some haters out there. I know and we will probably hear from them. But its winning this round of “the streaming war”. And it is probably going to keep piling on as it offers more content across the world via its planned international push with “Star”. Star, not to be confused with “STARZ” which is a totally different company, is an international version of Hulu.
I have said it before and I will say it again. I don’t think Disney really expected to grow as slowly as they said. It set up too big a story, and that company knows how to write them, or at least get the rights to them.
