According to Morgan Stanley, Disney+ is going to be a huge success. The firm projects that the service will reach 13 million subscribers by the end of fiscal year 2020, and 130 million by the end of 2024. “Encouragingly, consumers are voting with their wallets today, spending an estimated $15-20bn a year for movies and TV product that will ultimately make its way to Disney Plus,” said Analyst Benjamin Swinburne.
Netflix already has 148.8 million worldwide, as well as 60 million paid subscribers in the U.S. In comparison, Hulu which is now also controlled by Disney, revealed last month that they have 26.8 million subscribers, of which 25 million were paid subs. Last year, Amazon revealed that they had 100 million Prime subscribers, but according to a report by Reuters about 26 million U.S. customers stream videos on Prime Video.
Disney+ will launch their streaming service on November 12th at just $6.99 a month, nearly half the price of Netflix ($12.99). Starting with the 2019 theatrical slate, all Disney/Pixar/Marvel/Star Wars films will become exclusive to Disney+ meaning movies like the live-action versions of Aladdin, The Lion King, Captain Marvel, and Avengers: Endgame will only be available to stream on Disney+.
The company will also announced an original slate including a 10-episode Star Wars series from Jon Favreau which will be available at launch in November. The first year will include 25 new original series, 10+ movies, 7,500 past episodes, 100 recent movies, and 400 library titles including the entire Disney Vault. Previously, many of those new releases and library films would have gone to Netflix as part of a distribution deal that started in 2016.