Alarmed by Netflix’s staggering success, Disney has recently announced that it was going to shift to digital streaming, too.
To catch up with Netflix, the company is planning to open two streaming services simultaneously. On the first, Disney will stream sport programming from ESPN: baseball, hockey, and tennis. Only in the first year, the company promises to stream more than 10,000 sport events. To attract more viewers to their streaming services, Disney has negotiated more expensive contracts with sport leagues, among which are UFC and League of Legends esports events. The second service is planned to stream Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm movies and shows. Although Disney’s authorities do not fully reveal what movies the audience will see, it is known that it can expect a sequel to Frozen, Toy Story 4, and a live-action of the Lion King. Disney also says that it will redouble investment into original content. With a revolution in Disney World looming large, investors understandably wonder what changes it will bring in its wake. Everyone is thinking now how to start investing in Disney’s stocks and whether its new digital streaming is going to push its assets up or bring them down. If you are curious about the future of Disney’s stocks but have a little knowledge of stock marketing, you can learn how to start investing and decide yourself whether to put money in Disney’s assets, once its streaming services gain momentum.
Analysts are divided on the issue of Disney’s future. Sceptics are of the opinion that Disney’s battle with Natflix has already been lost, that it will never repeat its success. Within a surprisingly short period of time, Netflix has revolutionized the stable world of the cable television and rewritten the rules of making TV and movie deals, television scheduling, and marketing campaigns. It has also engaged 56 million subscribers. Netflix, sceptics say, has already gone so far ahead of the media universe that Disney will never catch up with it, let along will outrun it. Netflix has also generously invested into content, spending on it $8 billion in 2018. Investors thus expect gains in market share rather than earnings per share. Disney, in contrast, is launching its streaming services after it had acquired a nine-figure debt by purchasing 21st Century Fox assets. The verdict skeptical analysts thus deliver to Disney is that its stocks are on the road to perdition.
Optimists retort that it is not all doom and gloom for Disney’s digital streaming. Disney undoubtedly owns the best content in the world, and in streaming services, the one who owns interesting content, wins. Indeed, Disney has recently revealed that it would feature content attracting different demographics. Viewers will soon see on its Disney+ channel a live-action Star Wars series along with a High School Musical series, a Monsters, Inc. series, and two Marvel universe series. Disney+ will also feature documentary series, Disney’s original movies, and the animated Clone Wars series. It will also have another live-action Star War series. What Disney has also recently done in the attempt to arrest Netflix’s inexorable march further is taking streaming rights from it on some of its movies. It also says that it would not renew a deal with Netflix that ends in 2019 and would stream its movies on its platform. Some of its most popular films – the Avengers, the Black Panther, the Incredibles 2, and the Star Wars – will soon be transformed to Disney channels. With such excellent depository of original content, optimistic investors argue, Disney is sure to launch the best streaming service on the planet and leave Netflix lagging hopelessly behind.
Some of Disney’s films are so popular worldwide that the company can easily follow Netflix’s steps and expand its sphere of influence to Europe and Asia. Disney’s plan is to bring its Hulu and Disney+ to international markets. Disney’s appeal to the international audience is another reason why some analysts think that Disney’s streaming services will soon conquer the world. Just as last year, Disney’s movies dominated the box office, with the company taking in $7.33 billion globally and 3.09 billion at home, it will soon come out on top and will outshine other media moguls with its new digital streaming services. Purchasing Disney’s stocks at the New York Stock Exchange might, therefore, be a prudent investment that will inevitably bring handsome profits to stock holders, when Disney’s assets will start climbing in the near future.