Differing Licensing Strategies Show Just How Far Apart Netflix and Disney Are Despite Similar Subscription Totals

It feels as if making the initial payment for Comcast’s 33% stake in Hulu has jumpstarted things at Disney. Not only has the company launched the public beta test for a one-app experience bringing Hulu content onto Disney+, but it has agreed to a licensing deal that will allow it to share streaming rights for “Grey's Anatomy” with Netflix starting in March of 2024.

• Disney has agreed to a new licensing deal that will send 14 shows to Netflix non-exclusively.
• Netflix has indicated that while it will continue to bring shows from other studios to its service, it has no plans to license its shows to outside platforms.
• The two disparate strategies show just how far apart Disney and Netflix are, despite being ranked first and second in terms of known streaming subscribers.

Which Disney Shows are Coming to Netflix?

The same deal that will allow “Grey’s Anatomy” to stream on a Disney-owned streaming service is also sending a total of 14 Disney-owned titles to stream on Netflix. It’s a non-exclusive deal, so those titles will still be available on Disney streaming services at the same time.

The 14 titles coming to Netflix are:

The agreement will bring Disney a much-needed cash infusion at a time when streaming is still not profitable for the company and it is having to pay billions to gain complete control of Hulu. The company just shelled out $8.6 billion for one-third of the general entertainment platform, and it may end up having to pay more for that transaction when it’s all said and done. It also has designs on launching a streaming version of ESPN by 2025, which will clearly be an expensive proposition, even if it finds a new partner to assume a minority ownership stake.

What Do Differing Licensing Strategies Reveal About Netflix, Disney+?

Audiences shouldn’t expect Disney to be completely finished licensing, as CEO Bob Iger has indicated his company will pursue additional deals. Netflix has seen plenty of success bringing shows like “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Suits” and HBO originals such as “Insecure” to its platform, and that could lead to it partnering with Disney for more titles in the near future. However, fans shouldn’t expect to see Netflix originals on other platforms any time soon.

“I do think that we can add tremendous value when we license content,” Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said this week, according to the New York Times. “I’m not positive that it’s reciprocal.”

The simple fact of the matter is that Netflix has more to gain financially from keeping its originals exclusive to its platform. Unlike Disney, Netflix has already figured out how to make streaming profitable, and forcing people to subscribe to its service to watch “Stranger Things,” “The Crown,” “Bridgerton,” and many other titles pays more for Netflix than the hypothetical licensing fee that it would collect for sharing those shows. Netflix has 247.15 million subscribers, making it both the largest and most financially successful streaming platform in the world.

Disney isn’t all that far behind in terms of subscriber numbers, standing second globally at 224.7 million subscriptions globally, not accounting for redundant customers signed up for multiple Disney platforms via the Disney Bundle. But financially, things couldn’t be more different between the two companies; Disney still loses millions of dollars per quarter on its streaming services. The amount it loses has been coming down in 2023, and the company expects streaming to be profitable in 2024, but that hasn’t stopped it from letting potential partners know that it will discuss licensing deals for pretty much everything in its library besides its core brands like Marvel and Star Wars.

It all goes to show that, while Disney is second only to Netflix in terms of publicly-reported streaming subscribers, the two companies are still very far apart in terms of their bottom lines and places in the streaming ecosystem. In The Streamable’s expert opinion, Netflix’s unwillingness to license its content compared with Disney’s clear new-found eagerness to do so is just another indicator that Netflix has achieved a level of success that Disney — and every other company in the streaming space — can currently only dream of.