As Discovery Inc reports their latest earnings, Parrot Analytics has found Discovery+ to be in a very strong position in the US streaming market when it comes to demand for both on platform and exclusive licensed content, a key driver of subscribers to sign up for a service.
Furthermore, the planned Warner Bros Discovery merged company is set to be near the top of the industry when it comes to corporate demand share.
In Q2 2021, Discovery+ (6.7%) outpaced Disney+ (4.5%) in on platform demand share, a measure of demand for all types of content available on a platform.
While total demand for all content available on a platform is an important measure, we can break this down further to understand what types of content are driving demand for a platform’s catalog - exclusively licensed, non-exclusively licensed, and platform originals.
- In Q2 2021, Discovery+ was in fourth place in demand for exclusive licensed content, behind only Hulu, HBO Max, and Netflix.
- This data points to the strength of Discovery Inc’s catalog of cable networks and highly in-demand programming from its networks like the Discovery Channel, HGTV, and TLC.
- It is also an example of a legacy media company successfully leveraging its assets to transition into the streaming era.
With the impending merger with WarnerMedia, it’s important to consider what the potential Warner Bros Discovery company - which would place Discovery+ and HBO Max under the same umbrella - would bring to the table in terms of demand for original content.
One way to assess this is by combining WarnerMedia and Discovery Inc’s respective corporate demand share - a consolidation of original demand where platforms are combined based on their corporate parent to show where audience attention is ultimately going.
- In Q2 2021, WarnerMedia (11.0%) was in third place in corporate demand share, behind Disney (18.9%) and ViacomCBS (12.3%), while Discovery Inc was in sixth place (6.5%) just behind Netflix (6.9%).
- The combined Warner Bros Discovery entity would have controlled the second most demand for original content by corporate ownership in the US (17.4%), just behind Disney at 18.9%.
- This speaks to the value of both companies merging, and suggests they could provide an example of legacy media brands poised to succeed in the streaming era.