Apple TV Plus Reportedly Has More Subscribers Than Disney Plus (fastcompany.com) 39
If a report from The Wall Street Journal is correct, Apple's TV Plus service that launched late last year has 10 million more subscribers than Disney Plus, which launched at a similar time but with access to almost every TV show and movie Disney owns the rights to. For comparison, Apple TV Plus launched with only 11 titles. Fast Company reports: According to the Wall Street Journal, an Ampere Analysis study found that Apple's fledgling Apple TV Plus service garnered an astounding 33.6 million subscribers in the U.S. in Q4 2019. That puts it as the third-most-popular streaming service in America. Here are the top five streaming video services according to the report: 1.) Netflix -- 61.3 million U.S. subscribers; 2.) Amazon Prime Video -- 42.2 million U.S. subscribers; 3.) Apple TV Plus -- 33.6 million U.S. subscribers; 4.) Hulu -- 31.8 million U.S. subscribers; 5.) Disney Plus -- 23.2 million U.S. subscribers.
To be sure, Apple TV Plus is the video streaming service with the lowest monthly cost at just $4.99, but with only 11 series or movies available at launch in Q4 2019, how on earth did it leapfrog Disney Plus with its catalog of Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar offerings (not to mention Baby Yoda)? The answer probably lies in the fact that Apple began giving away free subscriptions to its Apple TV Plus service to anyone who bought an iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV from mid-September onwards. Given that Apple sells tens of millions of those devices a month, it's no wonder Apple TV Plus has accumulated so many subscribers already. However, the real test for Apple will be how many of those subscribers stay on once their year-long free subscription of Apple TV Plus comes to an end.
To be sure, Apple TV Plus is the video streaming service with the lowest monthly cost at just $4.99, but with only 11 series or movies available at launch in Q4 2019, how on earth did it leapfrog Disney Plus with its catalog of Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar offerings (not to mention Baby Yoda)? The answer probably lies in the fact that Apple began giving away free subscriptions to its Apple TV Plus service to anyone who bought an iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV from mid-September onwards. Given that Apple sells tens of millions of those devices a month, it's no wonder Apple TV Plus has accumulated so many subscribers already. However, the real test for Apple will be how many of those subscribers stay on once their year-long free subscription of Apple TV Plus comes to an end.
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Some kind of porn joke? You mean, as in "potential subscribers are coming soon"?
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Probably, but right now Apple's bet has paid off: they're making headlines that they (currently) have more subscribers than Disney+ or Hulu.
Consider their own cost for doing that, which is lower than 5$US/month per subscriber, to what it would have cost in marketing to achieve the same goal. Right now, however, Apple is probably racing against the clock to retain those subscribers once their free year is up. On the other hand, they have so much money in the bank that they could continue to give "a free year
Barely worth having for free (Score:3)
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You get the full service, what OP is referring to is the classic movie and music purchases/rentals or HBO/premium channel integration.
There isn't a whole lot of content on AppleTV+ yet but what is there is good and high quality both in production value and the fact they're streaming at much lower compression ratios than Disney or Netflix, even on 1080p it still looks better than Netflix.
The problem with Netflix' original content is that it just isn't compelling, it's mass produced and streams are highly com
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The only decent thing on there is For all Mankind, and that's finished for this season. See turned out to be an expensive joke.
Disney has much the same problem. The Mandalorian season 1 is finished and there isn't much else on there if you are over the age of 10.
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It's not bad but needs more space stuff and less domestic drama.
There are other things (Score:2)
You may want to try Little America on Apple TV, a friend of mine says it's very good.
Sure Apple does not have a lot of selection, but they do not need to - now. They have around a year to produce enough interesting content that people with free subscriptions now, might want to actually subscribe. It's not really a model you can compare to the other services at all.
As for Disney+ there are still a lot of interesting things on there for adults. Togo looks to be pretty awesome, and is not really a kids movi
Duh (Score:2)
Apple gave away a free subscription to everybody that bought a phone, watch or iPad (MacBook too?) from them last year. That alone should explain the numbers - but with their current lackluster titles I doubt they’ll be able to keep people
free with purchase (Score:2)
What we are seeing here is the conversion rate of people who actually have bothered to activate their free year. That number may be as low as 5 ro 10%. Not so great.
“Gave away subscriptions” (Score:2)
“Apple began giving away free subscriptions to its Apple TV Plus ”
Hm hm, yeah, whatever. Come back in 1 year when they’ve stopped giving away free subscriptions, and the current ones have expired; then we can start looking at real numbers for comparison.
Re: “Gave away subscriptions” (Score:2)
Buying market share is a thing. And there is nothing wrong with it either.
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Buying market share is a thing. And there is nothing wrong with it either.
Which basically means they get to gloat about their bullshit numbers because they've got more money to waste buying that market share than coming up with an actual good product on its own merit.
Re: “Gave away subscriptions” (Score:2)
If you have a billion dollars to waste, you must be doing SOMETHING right.
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If you have a billion dollars to waste, you must be doing SOMETHING right.
Or hoarding it and not putting it to proper use.
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At the rate they are building original content, I think they are confident that their service will be worth the money in a year. Or, it is just an insurance policy against competitors.
I am one (Score:2)
I subscribe to AppleTV plus.
I signed up for the 7-day free trial for Disney, watched all of the Mandalorian and cancelled.
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https://imgflip.com/i/3n5axu [imgflip.com] (SFW)
Re: I am one (Score:2)
But are you paying for appletvplus and/or actually watching it? I signed up for both as one is free from Apple and the other is free from Verizon. There is stuff like National Geographic on Disney plus this is interesting. There is basically nothing on appletvplus. Not sure what the $5 is for as everything costs money. The few shows that are free I already get free elsewhere.
Re: I am one (Score:2)
Yes.
I have watched See and For All Mankind. I just started watching Little America last night.
In contrast...the only thing I wanted to watch on Disney was The Mandalorian. I have already seen anything else they had that I would be interested in.
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My wife and I enjoy Simpsons enough that we are happy to pay for it while we work through 30 seasons (or however many seasons we get through until we go "this has lost its charm"). I believe I grew out of the Simpsons around season 12 so it will be interesting to see how far I get.
You want the real story? (Score:2)
Re: You want the real story? (Score:2)
I accepted the free trial and have about 11 months left. Considering cancelling now so I donâ(TM)t forget to cancel in 10 months. Currently, Itâ(TM)s not even worth having as free. I never even use it. The only reason I havenâ(TM)t cancelled is on the off chance they actually add some content in the next 10 months.
Visit Disneyland, get a free trial to Disney +. (Score:2)
If I worked for Disney+ marketing, this article would prompt me to think about giving away a free trial subscription to anyone who visits Disneyland or Disney World. It would not cost the company anything too much extra, and the recipients of those trials have already paid money to Disney, and further they have proven their willingness to spend large amounts of money for the Disney experience (travel, lodging, entrance fees, incidentals, for the whole family). Disney+ brings far more bang for the buck tha
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You seem to overestimate the number of people worldwide who can even go to Disneyland or Disney World: going to the USA requires a passport and air travel for most of the planet, so even if they can afford to do it, it's probably going to be a once-in-a-lifetime thing.
You also vastly underestimate the reach of Apple worldwide: basically anyone can order online, and most people upgrade their hardware every few years.
Because it is free (Score:2)
Judging by the trailers, I didn’t find any of their shows interesting at all. But it is what you would expect that would come out of Hollywood these days so if that is your thing then you might like it.
nice information (Score:1)
Normal (Score:2)
One has the little kids and the other one the ones who are a bit older.