It’s undeniable that Disney+ has a lot to offer. With a large selection of new and classic movies and TV shows, it’s easy to see why the platform has been so successful. Thanks to its acquisition of 21st Century Fox, Disney+ has only gotten bigger and better.

Since pouring billions of dollars into its streaming platforms in recent years, Disney now counts more than 235 million subscriptions across its three platforms: Disney Plus, Hulu & ESPN Plus. In the most recent quarter ending in September, overall revenues for the company rose by 9%.

Netflix by comparison has 223 million subscribers. Now that’s a difference of 12 million between Disney. Disney numbers come from its cumulative platforms. Compared to Netflix as a single service with 223 million subscribers.

It’s been speculated that since Netflix shares have dipped 60% in the last year, Disney might consider purchasing the company. I doubt this would happen though; Netflix is currently in rebuild mode. Their latest venture is getting into the video game market by streaming games, but I don’t think it will work. Google offered a similar service called Stadia in 2019, but it’s shutting down on January 18, 2023. They charged a subscription fee to stream your games at high quality. Cloud based gaming with no good titles along with a subscription fee is something not many people liked and this is why it didn’t work out well.

Netflix would be a valuable asset to Disney because of its international reach. Netflix is in 190 countries and Disney Plus is in 60. With a purchase of Netflix, Disney could extend their international reach with Disney Plus. However, I doubt that the company heads would be willing to sell to Disney. There are no real pros to do so; unless the company heads have taken Netflix as far as they could.

Even though Disney has no trouble getting subscribers, the real problem lies in retention rates. Companies like Disney, Netflix, and other similar services fail to take into account how many people cancel their subscriptions after watching a movie or TV show. For example, everyone was raving about Wednesday, which aired on Netflix. However, what do you think will happen once people have viewed it and there is nothing else of value for them the following month? They will cancel the service. This is a major issue that needs to be addressed in order for these streaming companies to have long term success.