Editor’s note: Jordan Star is a content writer at market research firm CivicScience, Pittsburg. This is an edited version of a post that originally appeared here under the title, “Netflix may be safe without Disney, but there’s no guarantee.”
The earliest figures suggest that 15 percent of Netflix subscribers would consider leaving Netflix in response to Disney’s recent announcement that it will remove all content from the platform. The groups most likely to be affected include women, parents and grandparents.
We reported on Disney’s decision to remove its content from Netflix by 2019, and create its own streaming service. Based on our past research surrounding parents and video streaming platforms, the surprising announcement made us wonder how well Netflix would fare without such staple, kid-friendly movies.
To delve in deeper, we asked a representative sample of U.S. adults how they feel about Disney’s decision. Here’s what we found when focusing only on Netflix subscribers:
As you can see, most subscribers are unfazed by the announcement. However, if 15 percent do leave, the impact on Netflix might be significant – especially when we consider their demographics.
Women and parents
Two demographics seemed to jump out during our initial analysis. First, we found that women are much more likely to leave Netflix without Disney and second, that parents are more likely to, as well.
Check it out:
These numbers make sense. Many moms want Disney and Pixar movies at their disposal to keep their kids happy – and it’s much each easier to pull them up on Netflix rather than flip through a bunch of old, scratched-up DVDs.
As we’ve detailed in the past, parents are a vital demographic for video streaming services to capture, and they may even determine the fate of the industry itself. That said, given the relatively low rate of subscribers that would consider leaving, we’re unable to say what the future holds for a Disney-less Netflix. Further, these changes aren’t due to take effect until 2019, which feels like an eternity from now. We’ll keep tracking these numbers until then.