Media Analyst: Disney Streaming Service Could Cost as Little as $5 a Month

Although Disney was light on details in its recent announcement of a streaming service set to debut in 2019, a new report out today suggests the service will include 88 film titles that are currently on Netflix including Moana and Zootopia  — but probably not Marvel and Star Wars films, which will likely stay with Netflix or go to another service — and could cost as little as $5 a month.

The report, from MoffettNathanson media analyst Michael Nathanson, also suggests that Disney will shift its 30 or so shows from Disney Channel, Disney Junior and Disney XD that are currently available on Netflix and Hulu to the new Disney service but that shows from those cable channels would likely continue to be available on demand for subscribers to bundled TV services like Comcast Xfinity and Charter Spectrum.

“Disney is trying to thread the needle to add services that are incremental, not cannibalistic to existing business models,” says Nathanson, who is bullish on Disney despite the acceleration of cable subscriber losses this year, which are Disney’s biggest business. “We expect this direct-to-consumer push to yet again make clear that there are those media companies that are the ‘haves’ and the rest of the media companies as the ‘have nots.’ Disney, 21st Century Fox, NBC Universal, CBS and Time Warner all control must-have content with sports, news and live event programming.”

Nathanson said he sees a $5-a-month price point and 10 or so original shows the first year as keys for Disney to quickly grow its subscriber base and for consumers to see the new service as additive rather than a replacement for Disney’s cable channels. BTIG analyst Rich Greenfield is more skeptical, telling Decider in an interview last week that Disney spreading programming between a Disney streaming service, an ESPN streaming service and its various cable channels runs the risk of confusing consumers about where things are and alienating them over the total cost.

The report, which focuses more on the Disney OTT service than the ESPN OTT service that will launch in 2018, suggests that the Disney service should expect to have 1.9 million to 3.9 million subscribers by the end of its third year.

Scott Porch writes about the streaming-media industry for Decider and is also a contributing writer for Playboy. You can follow him on Twitter @ScottPorch.