Despite Profits, Disney+ Lags Netflix And Amazon Prime Video In Key Regions

Thursday, 6 February 2025, 8:25 am
Press Release: Parrot Analytics

With CEO Bob Iger (theoretically) entering his final two years in charge, Disney needs to address key strategic gaps to maintain and build upon its competitive position in streaming and entertainment.

Disney is already positioned to be a long-term winner in the global streaming race. But how exactly it will size up to Netflix and Prime Video globally and Max domestically remains to be seen.

Recent Streaming Economics data paint a stark picture: Disney+ lags considerably behind industry giants Netflix and Amazon Prime Video in subscriber counts across three key international regions. This performance gap is likely a result of Disney’s strategy of exporting its English-language IP abroad rather than developing homegrown content.

That franchise IP is still highly valuable, with Disney consistently topping Corporate Demand Share — a proxy for a media conglomerate’s library value. However, even that showed signs of slippage in 2024, with Disney losing more share year over year than any of its four major competitors in the category.

After years of bleeding money, Disney’s DTC segment must continue to post profits in order for Disney to succeed. With UCAN subscriber growth slowing down in the last few years, where can the Mouse House generate profits other than raising subscription prices and password sharing crackdown? A potential growth driver will be ‘ESPN Flagship’ but concrete details here remain hard to come by.

What is clear is that the Disney brand combined with the company’s war chest of blockbuster franchise IP presents both key advantages and potential pitfalls. Diversification, which was a central driver behind the integration of Hulu into Disney+, and clear strategic execution will remain integral for sustained growth.

Disney Regional Subscriber Breakdown

• Per Parrot Analytics Streaming Economics system, Disney streaming lags far behind its major global SVOD competitors Netflix and Amazon Prime Video in Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) and Latin America (LATAM) as of the September 2024 quarter.
• During this quarter, Netflix had more than triple Disney+’s EMEA subscribers while Prime Video had more than double. Netflix nearly doubled Disney+’s subscriber base in LATAM, while Prime Video’s LATAM subscriber count was 26% higher than Disney+. Disney+ did make up ground in LATAM compared to the prior quarter, when Amazon’s lead was 35%. But Europe generally boasts high ARPU customers and is a key battleground of the streaming wars.
• Adding Disney+Hotstar onto the Disney+ core subscribers puts Disney within striking distance of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. However, the ARPU on those Hotstar subscribers is only a small fraction of that of Disney+ subscribers elsewhere.
• Netflix and Prime Video have prioritized heavily investing in local language content over the years, while Disney has focused more on exporting its English language content around the world. The results of these strategies are reflected in the regional subscriber counts. However, Disney is slowly increasing its share of local language content.
• Since launch, the three most valuable series to Disney+’s in terms of subscriber revenue have been flagship launch original The Mandalorian as well as animated series The Simpsons and The Owl House take up the second and third positions, respectfully.

Disney Streaming Global DTC Breakdown

• As of September 2024, Parrot Analytics Streaming Economics data shows EMEA accounted for the largest international share of Disney+ core subscribers, followed by LATAM, and then APAC.
• Disney+ Hotstar makes up the largest chunk of Disney DTC subscribers outside of UCAN. However, the much lower ARPU associated with this segment — worth only about 15% of Disney+ core ARPU — makes this scale less valuable to Disney’s global streaming ambitions.
• The vast majority of Disney+ subscriber growth in UCAN since Q3 2022 (~8M according to our model) comes from Disney’s agreement with Spectrum, revealing how this B2B partnership has benefited Disney+. Hulu has added nearly 4M since then.
• Disney is also utilizing other tools such as price hikes, an ad tier, and a password sharing crackdown to increase APRU across regions to secure consistent DTC profitability.

Disney Dips in Corporate Demand Share

• Corporate demand share accounts for all original TV content produced under each company’s umbrella, and can help effectively value a conglomerate’s legacy and library content in aggregate.
• While Disney has led this category since the 2010s, its lead did slip in 2024. Disney’s share dropped from 19.8% in 2023, with a 2.8 percentage point lead over second place Warner Bros. Discovery to 18.5% in 2024, and a 1.8 percentage point lead over second place Warner Bros. Discovery.
• Netflix was the biggest major gainer here in 2024, finishing ahead of a legacy company for the first time even, just leading NBCUniversal 9.4%-9.3%. In fact, Netflix was the only one of the top five companies to grow its Corporate Demand Share in 2024, and Disney had the biggest loss:
• Netflix: +0.8%
• Warner Bros. Discovery: -0.3%
• NBCUniversal: -0.5%
• Paramount Global: -0.8%
• Disney: -1.3%
• Despite the recent success of Deadpool & Wolverine, Inside Out 2 and Moana 2, this could underscore a potential dip in interest for Disney’s core franchise brands as well as saturation among potential Disney subs overall.

© Scoop Media

Parrot Analytics

Global television demand measurement

Parrot Analytics is the leading global content demand analytics company for the multi-platform TV business. With the world's largest TV audience demand datasets, the company currently tracks more than 1.5B daily expressions of demand in over 100 languages from 200+ countries to reveal the content consumers engage with and watch the most across platforms.

As a trusted partner to some of the biggest media companies and content creators in the world, Parrot Analytics optimises content workflows in real time. The company's TV analytics products result in better production, distribution, acquisition and marketing decisions, as well as accelerated SVOD platform success.

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