Netflix isn’t suffering and has not lost subscribers following the launch of the new Disney+ streaming competition, CNBC reported on Tuesday (Nov. 19), citing investment firm Credit Suisse.
“Our Sensor Tower App downloads and Google search data analysis showed little to no impact from the Disney+ launch on Netflix trends, reassuring for Netflix relative to the competitive concerns priced into its stock, in our view,” Credit Suisse Analyst Douglas Mitchelson wrote in a note to investors. The research firm Sensor Tower provides mobile download data.
The findings are aligned with Wall Street forecasts; the majority of analysts do not think Netflix’s subscriber base will significantly drop due to the new Disney service.
The same can’t be said for the investors who started unloading Netflix stock over the past few months, driving the price down almost 15 percent since May. Aside from Disney+, Netflix has had to contend with increased competition from Amazon Prime Video, Comcast-owned Peacock by NBC, HBO Max and Apple TV+.
Mitchelson noted that it’s too soon to consider the download data to be irrefutable, and added that streaming rivalry is “a marathon rather than a sprint.”
Netflix announced in a Nov. 13 press release that it was expanding its partnership with Nickelodeon to produce original animated feature films and television series for kids and families worldwide.
Netflix has 158 million paid memberships in over 190 countries. It was co-founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph. Hastings has served as CEO since 1999, when Randolph stepped down. He left Netflix in 2003, just before the company’s IPO. He no longer has any connection to Netflix, according to a Sept. 19 New York Times article.
The streaming industry is expected to be worth $30.6 billion by 2022. The Motion Picture Association of America reported last year that, for the first time, there were more streaming subscribers worldwide than there were cable subscribers – 613.3 million and 556 million, respectively.