It’s estimated as many as 750,000 UK subscribers could abandon Netflix after the rights to top series reverted to owners Disney.
According to research firm Digital i, Netflix could lose £90 million in revenue if fans of Modern Family, How I Met Your Mother, Sons of Anarchy, Prison Break and New Girl follow the content to Disney+. The House of Mouse is the also the owner of content from ABC Studios and Fox.
The report highlighted the users as being of “high risk” of unsubscribing because a high proportion of their viewing was to these shows.
Digital i’s estimates, first reported in The Guardian, show that in the first quarter of 2021 some 12% of the viewing to Netflix’s most-popular content was to Disney-owned shows. Disney is not the only content owner to pull its shows from Netflix; the latest season of Star Trek Discovery is on ViacomCBS streamer Pluto TV.
In its shareholder letter, released Thursday, Netflix points to its slate original content, such as the new season of Bridgerton and movie The Adam Project as key assets in subscriber retention.
According to Ampere Analysis, Netflix remains the UK’s most popular streaming service with an estimated 14 million subscribers at the close of 2021, Amazon Prime Video holds 12.3 million and Disney 4.7 million.
