Technically Disney, the streaming war, has already won it. But only if you arm yourself with a calculator and add up the subscribers of all three of its platforms.
Technically Disney , the streaming war, has already won it. The total number of subscribers to the company’s streaming services was recently disclosed : from Disney + to Hulu, passing through the platform dedicated to ESPN sports.
Today Netflix can boast over 220.67 million subscribers. It is still an unbeaten number, considering that, in fact, these are subscribers to a single on-demand streaming service. Disney + has been around for fewer years, but it has already exceeded the 150 million subscriber ceiling – it will be necessary to assess what the effects of the recently announced price increase will be.
ESPN + , a platform with a huge catalog of sporting events, documentaries and interviews ranging from baseball to football, has around 22.8 million subscribers. It is worth noting that ESPN + is available exclusively in North America and there are no plans to export the service to Europe as well – where Disney would run into a chaotic maze of licensing and sports rights held by a plurality of different companies.
Hulu , which is part of the Disney empire following the acquisition of Warner Bros, not only has 46.2 million subscribers but is also the only one of the three services to generate profits, while the others are currently still at a loss. Hulu is also not available worldwide, but exclusively in a selection of countries.
In short, mathematics admits no objections: Disney beats Netflix, but as long as you arm yourself with a calculator. For the moment, the gap between Disney + and the Red Hasting platform still remains quite important.