Half of US adults will consider Disney’s pending subscriptionvideo service, a fourth moderately-to-highly likely to sign up.
New research from The Diffusion Group (TDG) finds that Disney’s upcoming direct-to-consumer (DTC) subscription service, Disney+, will likely to see solid interest — assuming it comes to market at the right price.
TDG recently surveyed adult broadband users regarding the likelihood they would sign up for “a Netflix-like service from Disney” that included:
– The Disney movie library (titles from Disney, National Geographic, Pixar, and Marvel, including Star Wars movies);
– The largest collection of Disney TV shows for children; and
– Original shows and movies created exclusively for the service.
Respondents were randomly assigned one of three price points for the service, either $5.99, $7.99, or $9.99 per month. On average, 43% of adult broadband users are to various degrees likely to sign up, 27% moderately or highly likely to subscribe.
“Based on our research, Disney+ will enjoy strong early demand,” notes Michael Greeson, TDG President. “The amount of high-quality content being packed into the offering will make it not only appealing, but very sticky.”
TDG views the launch of Disney+ as a major test for the direct-to-consumer model, as it differs from both subscription aggregators like Netflix and streaming ‘channels’ like HBO Now. “This is a major studio pooling what is arguably the largest library of high-value content on the planet to populate a single branded subscription service,” said Greeson.
Notably, to further fortify the service, Disney is pulling select content from third-party SVOD providers like Netflix, suggesting a tribalism of sorts, with big-name studios reserving their best content for their own DTC services. As such, Disney+ will be under a microscope; a running case study of what DTC can be, and a real-time measure of what impact, if any, such tribalism may have on the value chain.
While Disney+ appeals to a wide range of consumers, interest varies within several key segments. For example:
– Legacy pay-TV subscribers are more strongly interested in Disney+ than both cord-nevers and cord-cutters;
– Hulu subscribers are more likely to sign up than are Prime Video and Netflix subscribers; and
– Those under the age of 35 are twice as likely as their older counterparts to be strongly interested in Disney+, as are those with children under 18 living in the home.