‘Interesting six months’ ahead for streaming market

As the streaming wars heat up, a new player has unveiled its big plans for Australia. Here’s all you need to know.

A new streaming service is on its way to the Australian market aimed at taking a whack out of streaming supremo Netflix.

Disney unveiled plans for its Disney+ offering at last weekend’s D23 Expo in Anaheim, California, and it’s clear the service is hoping to make a splash.

Set to launch in November, Aussies can sign up for $8.99 a month or $89 for a full year, less than rivals Netflix and Stan.

Disney+ will also get rid of pricing tiers, giving all subscribers access to four simultaneous streams, and it will allow you to create seven profiles.

The new entrant will be a blow to Stan, with the Australian streamer expected to lose its Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars titles.

While it’s still unclear when these properties will be stripped from Stan, Disney+ looks set to have a wealth of other content available anyway.

One of the biggest announcements to come out of the expo, was that all 30 seasons of The Simpsons would be available on the US service on day one.

We just got this poster celebrating The Simpsons on #DisneyPlus! pic.twitter.com/1EMrS1ljvI

— Disney Plus News #D23Expo (@DPlusNews) August 25, 2019

Disney’s takeover of 21st Century Fox gave it rights to Fox titles such as The Sound of Music, The Princess Bride and Malcolm in the Middle.

All together, Disney+ will have more than 7500 television episodes and 500 films.

The company has predicted it will reach 60 million to 90 million subscribers globally by the end of the 2024 financial year, according to CNN. That’s still a fair way off Netflix’s 150-plus million.

Also by comparison, Netflix will spend an estimated $US15 billion on content this year, compared to Disney’s forecast $US1 billion in its first year, set to jump to $US2.5 billion in four years later, according to Variety .

Angus Kidman, tech expert at comparison site Finder.com.au, said Disney+ would first be a problem for Stan - owned by the Nine Network - before it was for Netflix.

“People are happy to pay for two or three (services) but every time there’s a new choice, that definitely represents a threat to everybody,” he told news.com.au.

“It depends what ends up on the Disney+ service. It doesn’t seem like everything Disney has ever produced is going to appear en masse. That’s still a big unknown.”

pic.twitter.com/VSlKJRAIV4

— Casually Cosplaying (@CasualCosplayin) April 11, 2019

Mr Kidman said Disney+’s advantage over Stan and Netflix was it already had mass appeal with brand recognition like Marvel.

“There’s enough Star Wars fanatics out there that will say I’ll sign up for Disney+ just to get that,” he said.

“It’s much easier for Disney+ in a way because it has a bunch of built-in appeal, whereas Netflix had to spend money to get the built-in brands.

“It’s definitely going to be an interesting six months.”

A selection of Disney movies, including films in the popular Marvel and Star Wars franchises, are still available to stream on Foxtel.

RELATED: Australians better get used to paying a lot more

Mr Kidman said Disney would have a bit of work to do if it wanted to stretch itself outside of the family market and appeal to singles.

He said the market segment for Apple TV+, which launches before the end of the year, would be different again as it tailors itself to a general adult audience.

Bingeing just got easier with the New Foxtel Experience. Foxtel and Netflix now all in one place. Get Foxtel

HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH STREAMING?

But Mr Kidman said the problem with the competitive market was how much was too much.

“It’s cheap to have three or four but there’s not that many hours in the day,” he said.

Foad Fadaghi, managing director of tech analyst company Telsyte, said there would be even more competition in the future.

“There’s a booming market where there’s going to be a lot more players in the future,” he told news.com.au.

“In the past people would have purchased five to 10 DVDs and engaged in large entertainment brands, but now with subscription services fans of that content are comfortable with paying an annual fee to get a proportion of content from their favourite brands.

I’m all signed up! Bring on November 12! #DisneyPlus pic.twitter.com/7XR4neLes4

— Michael Louie (@MichaelRLouie) August 25, 2019

“It’s really just a change in business model. Companies that used to sell DVDs in the past are seeing this as an opportunity to recoup that revenue. It’s money already in the marketplace.

“Netflix has a headstart on the market but they could have just paved the way for others to come and do a similar thing with their content.”

Mr Fadaghi said the key to success was having a small amount of very popular content combined with a very large library.

News.com.au is published by News Corp which is a part owner of Foxtel.