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

[ipponrg]

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

Apple TV+ has a "global launch" with a few titles that are available on select platforms. Disney is planning to launch in Europe with a gigantic catalog that trumps Apple's selection and will be platform agnostic.

I'm not even sure why you're even making this comparison.

 

[ilikewhey]

Disney plus have marvel and Star Wars, Apple TV got that morning show and Some future blind dudes running around

 

[ipponrg]

Shame they’re showing fake HDR. SDR video packaged in a HDR wrapper to fool displays (and consumers).

Ars covered it not long ago.

You know the old adage when it comes to streaming ... Content is King. They should rename the adage to Real HDR is King.

 

[Len Banks]

We watch both, but got to tell you the Disney+ service is far and a way better. Your article calling it an Apple TV+ competitor is wrong. Disney+ is taking on Netflix and Amazon. Apple TV+ is a sad joke and not yet worthy of being called a competitor. Now mind you we LOVED The Morning Show. Ground breaking and good acting. But Dickinson, just weird, couldn't even finish one episode. Heard that SEE is absolutely painfully vulgar so I am not sure I want to even risk any time to find out for myself. Their catalog is very sketchy and limited. Unlike Disney+ with great originals and of course the full catalog. For super Disney nerds, the documentaries, Imagineering and Waking Sleeping Beauty are GREAT and TOGO was very good! The Mandalorian is not their only new original content.

 

[tbayrgs]

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.

What isn’t available on the current AppleTV box that you’re waiting for, that other competitors have on theirs? It supports 4K content in all HDR formats, IIRC. What are you missing?

 

[smoking monkey]

Disney plus have marvel and Star Wars, Apple TV got that morning show and Some future blind dudes running around

And this is the problem atm. Apple doesn't have that water cooler show yet. The programming so far has been extremely odd in my view. They needed to hit broader strokes. I think the Video Game show, which is basically Silicon Valley, could be interesting. But why didn't they go after one of the big fantasy or sci-fi book series? That or go after an 80s franchise that is ripe for a reinvention like Amazon did with Karate Kid. There is no fluffy, fun, feel good show on Apple.

 

[DelayedGratificationGene]

Myself and my wife have had Disney+ since day one with no regrets. My wife loves older Disney films and I love having access to all seasons of The Simpsons.

As for Apple TV+? Zero interest in that.

Zero huh? Wel u certainly know yourself and thx for letting us know chief

 

[sw1tcher]

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.

Unfair comparison.

The 28.6 million Disney+ subscriber number isn't just for North America. The number includes subscribers in the U.S., Canada, Netherlands, Australia, etc. whereas the 67.66 million (not 61 million) Netflix subscribers is just for U.S. and Canada.

https://s22.q4cdn.com/959853165/files/doc_financials/2019/q4/FINAL-Q4-19-Shareholder-Letter.pdf

EDIT...

Didn't scroll down far enough. Now I see the 61.04 million U.S. subscriber number.

It should also be pointed out that "about 20%" of the subscribers are getting free 1 years subs courtesy of Verizon. Is anyone giving away a free subscription to Netflix? If not, then the Disney+ number is 28.6 million - 5.7 million (20%) = 22.9 million.

 

[Ray Merritt]

I won't touch Apple TV+ content with a 10-foot pole due to the TV-MA material they have chosen to include in their shows. They have a few shows that sounded interesting but after getting bombarded with language in The Morning Show I am not going to give the rest the time of day. I just don't need or want it.

 

[CrapShack]

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.

I am NO prude - but the amount of F-bombs on "The Morning Show" (which I'm actually enjoying quite a bit) is... annoying. It's unnecessary. It's the the sign of writers who don't take the time to write something more original for the characters to say.

It was on a commercial cable station originally, so they were probably not allowed to use the F-word, but look at what "Mad Men" was able to do dramatically (and comically) without resorting to unrestrained vulgarities.

As for Disney+, I signed up for the "pay for 2 years, get 1 free" promotion and I'm kind of regretting it. It's been live for almost 3 months and every time I log in.. it's just the same old stuff. But.. the letterboxed version of "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea"... I've watched about TEN TIMES. James Mason ROCKS.

 

[JamesMay82]

It baffles me why Apple doesn’t offer a wider catalogue to compliment their own productions.

if they followed the netflix model I would happily sign up.

at present I don’t think it represents value for money as you could easily binge their catalogue in a month and then what do you watch?

 

[DelayedGratificationGene]

It will be interesting to see how many customers will renew their Apple TV+ subscription after the free one year promo trial.

Yes $4.99 a month can be dealbreaker
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It baffles me why Apple doesn’t offer a wider catalogue to compliment their own productions.

if they followed the netflix model I would happily sign up.

at present I don’t think it represents value for money as you could easily binge their catalogue in a month and then what do you watch? Well why don’t u bypass that Starbucks latte mocha drink one day and use the savings to get a whole month of Apple TV

 

[Quu]

I have Apple TV+ due to buying a recent device and I have to say it feels sparse. Incredibly sparse.

I feel like Apple needed to spend 50 Billion in acquiring other companies backlog and creating new original content. There just isn't that much to watch on the service compared to their competition.

Even while having it for free I am not watching anything on it. I'm still watching Netflix & Amazon content. I watched the Mandalorian on Disney+ etc

Apple just really badly needs more content.

 

[Jim Lahey]

You know the old adage when it comes to streaming ... Content is King. They should rename the adage to Real HDR is King.

My comment was unrelated to the content.

 

[Wide opeN]

Everything I've tried to watch on Apple TV+ is terrible. Except Servant.

When I saw a water bottle in the opening scene of See I was like WTF are they serious 🤣🤣🤣

 

[DelayedGratificationGene]

I have a free year of AppleTV+. And I still haven't even bothered to set it up or log in.

But we subscribed to Disney+ on Day 1, and it's getting a lot of use.

Well why don’t ya? You’re one of those procrastinators aren’t u?
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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.

but u do care because you’re curious

Seems like I am in the same boat as some of the replies here. Got Disney+ on day 1 and love it. Apple tv? nah im good. How about you figure out why my keyboard keeps hiding the bottom of my messages forcing me to scroll up/down all the time just to read what they said.

Yes but it’s a very small boat

 

[FaustsHausUK]

I get both free (thanks Apple and Verizon!). Ignoring legacy content, both are clearly in need of content - hence drip-feeding their episodes on a weekly cadence. I loved The Morning Show and The Mandalorian so far, nothing else has super grabbed me from either.
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Everything I've tried to watch on Apple TV+ is terrible. Except Servant.

When I saw a water bottle in the opening scene of See I was like WTF are they serious 🤣🤣🤣

See I stuck with Servant but found it frustrating. I dipped out of See maybe five minutes in.

 

[Daimaou]

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.

I agree! I started watching See last night on Apple TV+ and the "prayer" scenes in both episodes 1 and 2 were just too smutty and stupid for me to continue on, which is too bad since the concept seemed interesting.

The show Servant was just stupid.

 

[mlody]

I have both services for free for one year -disney+ via Verizon and Apple TV+ by getting a new iPhone.
I watched couple star wars movies and the morning show and honestly don't care for neither of the services. Netflix is still the king when it comes to the original content; however i can see subscribing to each service for 1-2 months once a year to catch up on some shows i like. I already do that with Amazon Prime, Netflix and HBO and those two new comers wont be any different, so all this means is that i will have fee more services to throw into the mix.

 

[fmillion]

Disney+ has tons of familiar content that so many people are familiar with and like. It's no surprise people rushed to go for it.

Apple TV+ AFAIK is only producing original content right now. You have to have interest in their content - which you have to be on the service to even decide if you might have that interest - in order for it to be worth it.

I fear what might happen to ATV+ is what happens with HBO GO and GoT: there'll be one or two great shows, people will sign up to binge watch those shows then cancel. I'm not sure how much people will be willing to actually pay for a service that's offering nothing but original content, especially from a "new player" in the industry.

What I wonder is, if Apple and Disney are still under the same umbrella, why not just make AppleTV+ and Disney+ the same service? You wouldn't have needed to entice everyone with a free year of ATV+, and you could use Disney's immense popularity as an advertising vehicle for Apple (e.g. Disney+ works best with Apple). Even a slightly higher cost wouldn't have necessarily been a huge problem. Of course making it Apple only would have been a bad idea, but I don't think they're trying to keep ATV+ locked to Apple devices anyway. You could easily have "Apple Originals" or "AppleTV+" as a section on Disney+. Apple would get their content in front of so many more viewers...

 

[Unity451]

As for Disney+, I signed up for the "pay for 2 years, get 1 free" promotion and I'm kind of regretting it. It's been live for almost 3 months and every time I log in.. it's just the same old stuff. But.. the letterboxed version of "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea"... I've watched about TEN TIMES. James Mason ROCKS.

I'm looking forward to those new marvel shows that were teased during the super bowl.
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I agree! I started watching See last night on Apple TV+ and the "prayer" scenes in both episodes 1 and 2 were just too smutty and stupid for me to continue on, which is too bad since the concept seemed interesting.

The show Servant was just stupid.

I was really excited for Apple TV+, specifically See, but once I heard about those scenes, I didn't (and won't) even bother signing up.

 

[Kabeyun]

1. And how many paying subscribers? All Verizon promotional subscribers, for example, don’t count. This article has drawn attention to Apple TV+ promotional subscribers, so how bout some fair play?

2. The owner of the Disney, Marvel, and Star Wars franchises is surging, versus the owner of a bunch of shows you’ve never heard of? Not exactly headline worthy.

 

[BGPL]

Tried disney+, got sick of the buffering every 20 seconds and uninstalled. Give it six months, trust me.
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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.

Get a Nvidia Shield TV and you'll never own anything else again. I went from ATV, to FireTV, to Shield TV. It's light years ahead of any box out there. Decodes absolutely any audio and h.265 you can throw at it.

 

[Cosmosent]

AAPL should have just focused on streaming Live Sports & Live Events @ 1080p60, in P3 D65, & with a Fairly-High Bit Rate !

Here in the States, we get either 720p60 OR 1080i, in the sRGB equivalent, Rec.709

 

[Carnegie]

1. And how many paying subscribers? All Verizon promotional subscribers, for example, don’t count. This article has drawn attention to Apple TV+ promotional subscribers, so how bout some fair play?

2. The owner of the Disney, Marvel, and Star Wars franchises is surging, versus the owner of a bunch of shows you’ve never heard of? Not exactly headline worthy.

The subscribers through Verizon are, from Disney’s perspective, paid subscribers because Disney gets paid for them - though likely not at the retail price of $6.99 / month. That said, Mr. Iger indicated that about 20% of paid subscribers have come through Disney’s partnership with Verizon.

The average monthly revenue from Disney+ paid subscribers was still $5.56. That’s even with the presumably lower rate that is paid by Verizon and with Disney+ only being credited with about $5 per month from the bundled - Disney+, EPSN+, Hulu - subscriptions.