Disney Plus Has Already Taken 1 Million Subscribers From Netflix

After the release of the highly anticipated Disney+, the streaming wars have been raging full force. Recently, an analyst’s report has revealed that just in the month of November, the platform has taken nearly 1.1 million subscribers from Netflix, as in they have signed up for one and terminated with the other.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, investment company Cowen & Co. based the report on a poll of 2,500 US consumers. The study revealed that 21% of those surveyed had already signed up for Disney+ and 5.8% of Netflix users canceled their membership after switching to the new platform.

The study showed, however, that there was still an 80% overlap of subscribers that were currently using both streaming services. When extrapolated, the numbers (from the relatively small sample set) show that Netflix could potentially lose up to 1.6 million of its loyal users in Q4 of 2019, which is the same time period that both Disney+ and Apple TV+ officially launched.

While these results may paint a glum picture for Netflix, it’s apparently not devastating. In a summary of his findings, analyst John Blackledge projects that even despite the setback, a small amount of “incremental churn appears manageable,” meaning that new subscribers will arrive as old ones depart. According to the report, the streaming giant is still on track to beat their fourth quarter goal of adding 7.6 million new subscribers.

During Netflix’s third quarter earnings report, CEO Reed Hastings did not seem concerned about Disney+’s impressive new launch, and explained that Netflix has successfully navigated competition from companies such as Amazon, Hulu, and YouTube since their inception, and that “fundamentally, there is not a big change here.” He continued, “All of us are competing with linear TV and we’re all relatively small to linear TV.”

Disney+ officially launched on November 12th and has a library of nearly 450 movie titles and 7,500 television episodes. The subscription service is also developing more of its own original content, including a number of Marvel-backed projects and a reboot of Lizzie McGuire, along with a possible Turner & Hooch television adaptation. On the other side of the coin, Netflix has had a strong year with major hits such as The Irishman and Marriage Story, however, it is also losing some of its biggest binge-worthy classics such as Friends and The Office to various new streaming platforms.

Michael is a music and television junkie keen on most things that are not a complete and total bore. You can follow him on Twitter — @Tweetskoor