Can Disney+ Catch Up to Netflix and Amazon?

Netflix and Amazon have long divided the video streaming pie amongst themselves from a global perspective, until the Walt Disney Company launched its service Disney+ in November of 2019. With the announcement of adding another 42 countries to its serviced areas in the Summer of 2022, Disney's streaming branch will reach people in more than 100 regions around the world. Will it be enough to take on the VoD giants though?

As company data and Statista research show, Disney+ will most likely remain in fourth place when it comes to the biggest reach for quite some time still. Although it overtook iQiyi in terms of subscribers thanks to continued, but stalling growth in 2021, the Chinese streaming service founded in Beijing in 2010 is available almost everywhere in the world. The combined VIP subscribers of Tencent's video platforms Tencent Video and WeTV, on the other hand, number more than people subscribed to Disney's streaming service, while the platforms are only officially available in 14 mostly Southeast Asian countries. Despite its decelerating growth, the Walt Disney Company expects its streaming service to be available in 160 countries by 2023 according to company statements, with Disney veteran Rebecca Campbell heading a newly-established International Content and Operations unit to bolster its expansion endeavors.

Subscription-based video on demand services have turned from a trend into an economic mainstay, with many TV networks and entertainment companies like HBO, NBC and AMC launching their own platforms to mixed success. According to data from Digital TV Research, revenue for the subscription VoD sector more than tripled between 2016 and 2020 and is expected to reach $126 billion in 2026, most likely bolstered by original programming and the further need for consumers to diversify and pay for multiple subscriptions to get their streaming fix.