New Report Ranks Top 10 Most Popular Streaming Services
By Movieguide® Contributor
A new report has named the ten most popular streaming services, including Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and Peacock.
Starz comes in at number 10, with 15.88 million subscribers. Digital Trends added that the service “tacks on another 8.85 million in linear subscribers—think cable and satellite and the like.”
Apple TV+ is ranked ninth, with an estimated 25 million subscribers. Apple does not release numbers about its products, even in earnings releases. Number 8 is ESPN+ (26 million), with Peacock and Hulu taking the seventh and sixth slots, with 34 million and 48.5 million subscribers, respectively.
Paramount+ comes in fifth, with 71.2 million subscribers. Max is fourth, with 97.7 million, but Digital Trends called it a “messy number,” explaining that the number is made up of all of WBD’s direct-to-consumer subscribers, which includes Discovery+, HBO, HBO Max and the current Max platform.
Max is planning more partnerships, linking up with CNN and sports service The Bleacher Report.
JB Perrette, Warner Bros. Discovery’s global streaming and games CEO and president, spoke about their involvement in the live sports world, saying, “We look at the model in streaming and say, now’s the time to actually reset that model. Rather than, like we see some of our peers giving it away for free—what seems like giving it away for free, because they’re just giving it for no additional costs in the entertainment price—we think it has to be priced separately.”
Disney+ takes the third place spot, with 150.2 million subscribers, which is unsurprising. Disney has been very aggressive when it comes to bundling its streaming service with others, including Hulu and ESPN+, as well as offering content from studios and brands like Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar and National Geographic.
Their subscriber numbers recently took a hit. Variety reported that Disney+ “lost 1.3 million subscribers in the final quarter of 2023 amid a hefty price hike that went into effect last fall, but managed to narrow its streaming business’ losses by $300 million during the October-December period.”
Amazon Prime comes in second, with 200+ million subscribers, but it’s difficult to get a real estimate, as Prime’s streaming platform is also used to buy and rent content, meaning that someone could make use of Prime’s services without actually being a subscriber.
No surprise, Netflix is No. 1, with 269.6 million subscribers, a number that’s up 16% year-over-year.
Digital Trends chalks their success up to “the sheer scope of content” users can find on Netflix, remarking on the fact that “Netflix has capitalized by blurring the lines between countries thanks to some aggressive marketing, language-dubbing, and subtitles.”
Movieguide® previously reported on Netflix’s earnings:
Netflix’s most recent earnings report shows that the streaming service topped 200 million paying subscribers worldwide in 2020.
The company boasted 203.66 million customers in the report and shared that their original TV series dominated Google’s Top 10 most searched series, owning nine of the top ten spots in 2020.
Moreover, Netflix’s report piqued Wall Street’s interest as the company’s shares reached a new high.
According to Deadline, Netflix shares “reached $570 in the early going, up 15%, and at one point reached a new high north of $580.”
Eric Sheridan of UBS encouraged people to start buying the “long-term winner as more consumer habits shift globally toward a handful of streaming media platforms.”
Jeffrey Wlodarczak of Pivotal Research added that Netflix “offers consumers an increasingly compelling unique entertainment experience on virtually any device, without commercials at a still relatively low cost.”
Michael Morris of Guggenheim noted: “After a debt-funded business model shifting from licensed to original programming over the past five years, Netflix has scaled to a self-funded and now a highly free cash flow generative business. This will strengthen its competitive position, reduce the risks to the business, and reinforce our ‘overweight’ view.”
- Content: +2Share:
- Content: +1