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Apple TV+ Competitor Disney+ Already Has Over 28 Million Subscribers

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In the first three months following its launch, Disney+ has accumulated 28.6 million subscribers, Disney CEO Bob Iger said today during Disney's Q1 earnings call.

According to Iger, Disney+ has "exceeded" the company's "greatest expectations." As The Verge points out, Disney+ has surpassed the number of HBO Now subscribers and is gaining on Netflix's U.S subscriber count, which is at 61 million as of January 2020.

disney-plus-iphone.jpg

There's no direct comparison to Apple TV+ given the fact that Apple hasn't released subscriber numbers and has a large number of non-paying customers as the company has been providing everyone who has purchased an Apple device since September with a free year of Apple TV+ service.

Disney+ ran promotions for discounted service for multiple years, marking the service down to the equivalent of $3.99, and has provided free Disney+ access to Verizon subscribers. Outside of free trial members and Verizon users, customers with access to Disney+ are paying for it, unlike most Apple TV+ subscribers at this time.

Extrapolating from Apple's Q1 earnings report, Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi recently suggested that Apple TV+ has a low adoption rate, even among those who can get it for free. He speculated that this could be due to disinterest from consumers given the limited amount of content on Apple TV+ or Apple's failure to promote it.

It's not clear if Sacconaghi's estimates are correct, as figures from Ampere Analysis shared by The Wall Street Journal indicated Apple could have as many as 33.6 million subscribers, though most of those have free access.

Disney+ has a major edge over Apple TV+ because Disney+ has an established catalog of content along with many popular Star Wars and Marvel franchises. "The Mandalorian," the key show Disney+ premiered with, received more attention than any of Apple TV+'s launch shows, including "The Morning Show," "Dickinson," "See," and "For All Mankind."

Apple TV+ may be able to catch up to Disney+ at some point in the future because Apple does have a huge subscriber base to appeal to given the number of iPhones and other Apple devices in the wild, but it will be years before Apple is able to match Disney's content offerings.

Article Link: Apple TV+ Competitor Disney+ Already Has Over 28 Million Subscribers
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2020/02/04/disney-plus-over-28-million-subscribers/
Aside from the fact that Disney+ has such a backlog of titles and top tier franchises... I just appreciate how everything is family friendly. I'm so sick of all the TV-MA content that is getting produced. So many good show concepts out there from other platforms that go too deep into the smut because they think they need all that garbage to make it an appealing show/movie.
 
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I'm about to cancel mine - way too many movies shown that when you try to watch say "coming in X months..." etc.
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Good shows on AT+. Is it worth "paying" (vs free) for it now? No. But I think Apple knows this and the catalogue will look very different a year from now.
 
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My wife and I happily pay for Disney+ and it works on all our devices. We got multiple “free” trials of Apple TV+ and we haven’t used it even once, and we STILL feel like we want some kind of refund, just for the principle of it not being supported on LG WebOS *and* they haven’t updated the Apple TV hardware in ages.
 
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gplusplus said:
they haven’t updated the Apple TV hardware in ages.
Click to expand...
I have an older Apple TV, the one just prior to the one that includes the fancy new remote and it's abandoned. I can't sync it proper with my iMac anymore nor can I access certain streaming services on it.

The Apple TV was always a side hobby to Apple but if they are going to be in the streaming business now they need to put this thing back on their radar big time.
 
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gplusplus said:
My wife and I happily pay for Disney+ and it works on all our devices. We got multiple “free” trials of Apple TV+ and we haven’t used it even once, and we STILL feel like we want some kind of refund, just for the principle of it not being supported on LG WebOS *and* they haven’t updated the Apple TV hardware in ages.
Click to expand...

Installed today on LG.
 
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Polymorphic said:
I have a free year of AppleTV+. And I still haven't even bothered to set it up or log in.
Click to expand...

In theory I also have a free year of Apple TV+. Got an email from Apple telling me so, even. But when I tried to set it up, I'm just shown the normal paid tiers.

Not that I particularly care about Apple TV+, but I am more curious if this issue is widespread.
 
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Disney+ has great catalog to be sure.

But to sustain its growth, it needs more originals (not docuseries) and quick.

Beyond Clone Wars due in 2-3 weeks, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier due in August is the next big original. And from then on, we start to get better cadence of new originals. But 5 months of no major originals is a pretty big gap.
 
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buttongerald said:
I have an older Apple TV, the one just prior to the one that includes the fancy new remote and it's abandoned. I can't sync it proper with my iMac anymore nor can I access certain streaming services on it.

The Apple TV was always a side hobby to Apple but if they are going to be in the streaming business now they need to put this thing back on their radar big time.
Click to expand...
They’re also trying to get into gaming. Not having new hardware available for purchase makes a non-owner a non-adopter.
djcerla said:
Installed today on LG.
Click to expand...
Not on a 2018 model, you didn’t.
 
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buttongerald said:
I have an older Apple TV, the one just prior to the one that includes the fancy new remote and it's abandoned. I can't sync it proper with my iMac anymore nor can I access certain streaming services on it.

The Apple TV was always a side hobby to Apple but if they are going to be in the streaming business now they need to put this thing back on their radar big time.
Click to expand...

If they are going to kill generations like other hardware they can f-off quite frankly. Or drop the price to Roku equivalent. Even Android TV boxes. You want us to go legal, make it worth our while.
 
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buttongerald said:
I have an older Apple TV, the one just prior to the one that includes the fancy new remote and it's abandoned. I can't sync it proper with my iMac anymore nor can I access certain streaming services on it.

The Apple TV was always a side hobby to Apple but if they are going to be in the streaming business now they need to put this thing back on their radar big time.
Click to expand...

Uh why? Where are the Netflix, Disney, CBS, Hulu, HBO boxes?
 
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Not enough for me to sign up. I’ve seen everything they have that I want to see (Star Wars, Marvel, their back catalog).

I’ll wait until they get a couple more new shows and then I’ll sign up for a month and binge watch them. Not going to pay every month for what they have.
 
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BUt... Disney+ is only available right now in U.S., The Netherlands, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand... whereas Apple TV+ has had a global launch...i.e. in almost any country...that's why i have a Apple TV+ sub and not a Disney+ sub
 
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