Disney Plus ups target after Netflix-rival surpasses 86m subscribers
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Disney Plus has announced plans to increase its subscriber target by 2024 to between 300-350m overall subscriptions.
It follows a strong debut year in which the Netflix-rival surpassed 86m total subscribers.
Comparatively at the end of 2019, Netflix had 167m subscribers world-wide. However, Netflix began its streaming service back in 2007, having a 13-year head start on Disney.
Moreover, Jeff Bezos announced that Amazon Prime Video now has more than 150m subscribers, but the service premiered by in 2014.
Although not planned, Disney Plus could not have timed the release of their streaming platform more perfectly. The company along with the other streaming services have benefited substantially from the Covid crisis, with many people looking to boost their options for at-home entertainment.
Speaking at Disney’s Investor Day event in California yesterday, Bob Chapek, Disney’s chief executive officer said: “The tremendous success we’ve achieved across our unique portfolio of streaming services, with more than 137 million subscriptions worldwide”.
‘“With our amazing creative teams and our ever-growing collection of the high-quality branded entertainment that consumers want, we believe we are incredibly well positioned to achieve our long-term goals,” he added.
What next?
In the coming years, Disney Plus plans to roll-out a lot more exclusive content, with the intention of continuing to entice new subscribers for the long-term. In this time, the company hopes to release approximately 10 Star Wars series, 10 Marvel series, 15 Disney live action shows, a Disney animation and a Pixar series.
“This incredible slate of new original content reflects our continuing commitment to harness the resources and immense creativity across our company to bring audiences extraordinary entertainment experiences unlike anything else in the market,” says Bob Igler, chairman of the board at Disney.