Disney Snags 1.1 Million Netflix Subscribers With Streaming Service

Two years after pulling their content off Netflix, Disney has started drinking their milkshake.

According to a recent analytics report from Cowen & Co., an estimated 24 million subscribers signed up for Disney+, the company’s new streaming service. Of that, their polling suggests that 1.1 million, or 5.8% of Netflix users canceled their subscriptions to switch services, USA Today reports.

The company said its new platform, which features every film and TV series Disney has and will make, gained close to 10 million subscribers in its first day of availability.

The estimate would exceed previous Wall Street forecasts, which projected over 20 million users by year-end. This number also includes Verizon’s offer of a free year of Disney+. –USA Today

That said, Netflix – despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars to churn out C-grade content for emotionally stunted millennials – probably has nothing to worry about, according to Cowen.

“Netflix will always have more diverse content and a wider offering,” said the company’s internet and new media analyst, John Blackledge, adding “They’ll maintain their lead as the number one streaming player over the next couple of years and in the long term.”

Cowen also says that over a third of Netflix subscription cancellations would have happened regardless of Disney’s launch.

Meanwhile, shares of Netflix rose on Friday – the company’s sixth straight day of gains – after RBC wrote that the video-streaming company may experience a “surge” in international user growth.

There is potential for NFLX’s global subscriber base “to grow materially by 2023, IF it executes well” Average revenue per user can also rise, depending on execution; “Netflix does indeed have pricing power”

“We believe NFLX U.S. will emerge stronger in FY20,” wrote analyst Mark Mahaney, citing a quarterly survey that RBC conducts about streaming, though he added that the impact of user churn related to new streaming services was “not yet clear”  -Bloomberg