Disney had over 235 million paid subscribers, by October 2022, across its streaming properties (Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu). Compared to 179 million paid subscribers in 2021.
The streaming wars
In the last couple of years, Disney has successfully managed to boost its streaming business, reaching the point of learning to play at the level of Netflix.
Yet it did at the expense, as you can notice from how Disney’s profitability has changed since 2019 when Disney completed an over $70 billion acquisition.
So much so that, by 2022, Disney’s streaming services combined passed Netflix’s subscriber base.
It’s worth highlighting that The Walt Disney Company, which is the mother company of Disney, did that with an aggressive acquisition and expansion strategy.
Today Disney is among the primary players in the streaming industry, as confirmed as well by a recent Nielsen’s analysis.
Hulu is a streaming platform that servers users in the United States with a library of content from networks such as ABC, NBC, FX, and CBS. The company was founded as a joint venture between News Corporation, NBC Universal, and Providence Equity Partners in 2007.
Hulu has undergone several changes in ownership over the years, with Providence Equity Partners, Time Warner, Comcast, and AT&T involved with the company at various times.
Disney became the majority shareholder in 2019 when it acquired 21st Century Fox in 2019. The other majority shareholder, Comcast, has also agreed to be acquired as early as 2024 with the company remaining a silent 33% stakeholder until its interests are sold off.
Netflix is a subscription-based business model making money with three simple plans: basic, standard, and premium, giving access to stream series, movies, and shows. Leveraging on a streaming platform, Netflix generated over $29.6 billion in 2021, with an operating income of over $6 billion and a net income of over $5 billion.
Binge-watching is the practice of watching TV series all at once. In a speech at the Edinburgh Television Festival in 2013, Kevin Spacey said: “If they want to binge then we should let them binge.” This new content format would be popularized by Netflix, launching its TV series all at once.
Coopetition describes a recently modern phenomenon where organizations both compete and cooperate, which is also known as cooperative competition. A recent example is how the Netflix streaming platform has been among the major customers of Amazon AWS cloud infrastructure, while Amazon Prime has been among the competitors of the Netflix Prime content platform.
Netflix is among the most popular streaming platforms, with a subscription-based businessmodel. The brand, platform, and content are strengths. The volatility of content licensing and production are weaknesses. The streaming market is a potential blue ocean. The inability to attract and retain premium members and its fixed long-term costs threaten its businessmodel.
Netflix is a profitable company whose net profits were $5.1 billion in 2021. Growing from $2.7 billion in 2020. The company runs a negative cash flow businessmodel, which anticipates content development and licensing costs through the platform. Those costs get amortized over the years as subscribers stick to the platform.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
