Netflix is the number one streaming platform right now, but soon it may join the likes of MySpace in the “former king of the hill” camp.
According to Forbes writer and chief analyst at RiskHedge, Stephen McBride, Netflix is going to have its legs swept out from underneath it as Disney takes its streaming service online, and pulling its hefty amount of content from Netflix. McBride said that Netflix has around 175 days to pull off a miracle, or it’s toast.
The key is that Netflix, while it makes original content, is borrowing billions in order to do it. In fact, as McBride points out, this has put the streaming service in $10.4 billion worth of debt, which is 59% more than it owed this time last year. Not to mention the fact that Netflix’s original content doesn’t do half as well as Disney’s.
McBride accurately describes Disney as the “king of content,” noting that four of the five blockbusters of 2018 were Disney properties…and it owns a lot of properties.
“Disney owns Marvel, Pixar Animations, Star Wars, ESPN, National Geographic, Modern Family, and The Simpsons. Not to mention all the classic characters like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck,” noted McBride.
“Disney has shown it can produce movies and shows people want to watch. No competitor comes within 1,000 miles of Disney’s world of content,” he adds later.
In other words, Netflix is throwing billions of dollars at a wall to see what works. Disney, however, already knows what works and rakes billions in. The numbers are so lopsided it’s almost not even a competition.
However, what may save Netflix is also part of what would make subscribing to Disney’s service appealing, and that’s simply its low price. Disney plans on charging $6.99 a month, which for many a middle American household is pocket change. As Ashe Schow at the Daily Wire points out, a study conducted in March found that the average American subscribes to a handful of services.
Disney is making it very easy to have it and others at the same time. Keeping Netflix may be in the cards for many households.
The problem is keeping the eyeballs once Disney rips all their content off of other platforms and places it on their own. With a chunk of their audience now tuned into another streaming service regularly, that mountain of debt may look far more intimidating.
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