Exclusive: Disney+ Sees Huge Subscription Spike As Homebound Audiences Clamor For Content
Ariel ShapiroForbes Staff
Forbes
March 23, 2020
Topline: As Americans brace for spending weeks (or months) inside as the coronavirus pandemic spreads, they are subscribing to additional streaming services, with Disney+ proving to be far and away the most popular choice.
- Between Saturday, March 14, 2020, and Monday, March 16, 2020, the number of Disney+ signups more than tripled compared to the same period from the week prior, according to data provided exclusively to Forbes from streaming analytics firm Antenna.
- Coinciding with school closures across the country, the period saw the biggest gain for family-friendly Disney+ in 2020.
- The trend, according to Antenna cofounder and CEO Rameez Tase, was observed from data collected from opt-in consumer panels.
- Premium streaming services including HBO Now and Showtime also saw steep gains (90% and 78%, respectively) in that three-day period, but there is a catch: The data also includes free trials, and those services tend to have higher churn rates than Netflix or Disney+.
- Netflix saw a more modest 47% increase in the number of subscriber additions, but it is still a solid boost for the streaming giant that already has 61 million paid memberships in the U.S.
- Apple saw only a 10% rise in new subscribers compared to the week before, the lowest of any of the major streaming services.
Key background: This is a bright spot for Disney, as much of its business is placed on pause. Earlier this month, the company decided to close its theme parks in the U.S. and Europe in addition to the ones in Asia that had been shuttered earlier. Its film studio has also delayed the release of tentpole films like Mulan and Black Widow and faces an uncertain future when movie theaters open again. Last week, Disney announced its intention to raise cash to deal with the loss of revenue; perhaps the jump in Disney+ subscribers can help with that, as well.
What to watch for: Whether this hunger for content will translate into memberships for upcoming services HBO Max, debuting in May, and NBCUniversal’s Peacock, which will have a soft launch in April and be released nationwide in July. Like Disney+, HBO Max and Peacock will have deep catalogs of classic films and television shows that audiences may find comforting in this time of uncertainty and fear.
What we don’t know: If audiences will hold on to their new subscriptions in the long term. Tase said the firm will continue to analyze the data to see if audiences retain their streaming services once life returns to normal.
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