Disney+ to Reportedly Surpass Netflix in Total Subscribers by 2026
By Movieguide® Staff
According to Digital TV research analysis, Disney+, which rapidly rose to compete with the most extensive streaming services globally, is on pace to overtake the streaming giant Netflix by 2026.
In a recent report, analysts predict that Disney+ will reach 294 million in 2026, surpassing the 286 million that it projects for Netflix.
Disney+ plans to establish a strong global presence that will boost their subscriber count but provide less revenue than their domestic U.S. market.
“Disney+ Hotstar will roll out to 13 Asian countries by 2026. These countries will supply 108 million (37 percent) of the global Disney+ subscriber total, but only $2.62 billion (13 percent) of the platform’s revenues by 2026,” Digital TV Research’s principal analyst Simon Murray said. “Hotstar subscribers pay less than a third of the monthly subscription fee of their U.S. counterpart.”
The report also highlights the importance of original content, which proved highly successful amid the pandemic—which severely crippled the traditional box office.
Disney+ and Netflix have established themselves as the frontrunners in the top streaming services. However, the fast-growing Disney+ commands a dominant lead in family-friendly programming, a genre in which Netflix has expressed a desire to compete.
Movieguide® previously reported:
Co-CEO for Netflix, Reed Hastings, said that the streaming services champion wants to target family-friendly programming content to compete with and surpass their competition.
“We want to beat Disney in family animation,” Hastings said.
Although Netflix releases hundreds of titles on a global scale each year, Hastings aims to take control of the animated movie market he says is led by Disney.
Hastings confessed that it might be some time before Netflix defeats Disney in this avenue: “That’s going to take a while. I mean, they are really good at it.”
Despite this supposed goal of creating family-friendly content, Netflix has acquired movies that are nothing short of filth. For example, the Netflix Company came under fire for their refusal to remove a French movie called CUTIES from their site. As a result, Netflix’s’ subscriber count dropped dramatically.
As streaming platforms jockey for the top spot, winning in the family-friendly genre could be a critical contributing factor for the next few years.