Disney+ continues to cement its place as a powerhouse in the streaming market. Fueled by stay-at-home orders and compelling original content, the streamer will reach $1.94 billion in revenue by the end of this year. Thanks to a recently announced $1 subscription price increase scheduled for March, Disney+ is on track to surpass $4.23 billion by the end of 2022.
Disney’s collective streaming revenue generated from Hulu, ESPN+ and Disney+ places it just behind Netflix, coming in close to closing in on the streaming giant by 2022. Netflix currently generates $10.64 billion in revenue compared to Disney’s $7.31billion. By 2022, both streamers will be making more than $12 billion. Each platform’s share of the market will also be nearly equal.
As of this year, Disney+ represents 26.5% of Disney’s subscription OTT revenues, with Hulu accounting for 67.6% and ESPN+ making up 5.8%. Each platform’s share of the market will also be nearly equal, as seen in the chart below:
“Hit shows like The Mandalorian, Disney’s vast library, key distribution deals, and a massive marketing push drove strong initial growth in subscribers,” said Eric Haggstrom, eMarketer forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence. “It’s expected to continue to grow off that base as it ramps up content releases and brings some movies straight to the service, instead of a theatrical release in some cases.”
OTT streaming services continue to grow as a whole. Total revenues for the sector will jump 29.9% next year to $38.15 billion and climb another 19.4% in 2022
Aside from YouTube, Netflix pulls in the most viewers with close to 168.9 million, followed by Amazon Prime Video and Hulu with 130.1million and 94.5 million respectively.
“The subscription streaming landscape continues to expand,” Haggstrom said. “The good news for dominant player Netflix is that while new services like Disney+ have had successful launches, many consumers have been simply stacking services together.”