Pointing to the successful launch of Disney+, a new report said there is still room for new players in the crowded streaming market.
The report, from Apptopia and Braze, said that partly because of the COVID-19 pandemic, streaming sessions were up 30.7% globally.
“Clearly, 2020 will be a big year for streaming. As consumers adapt to the new normal, we’ll see the launch of Quibi on April 6, HBO Max in May, and NBCUniversal’s Peacock on July 15, further challenging a strong group of established play,” the report said. “Despite the crowded market, Disney+ proves there’s still room for new streaming services.”
NBCU's Peacock will be available on April 15 to Comcast subscribers.
The two companies’ research found that Disney+ had 22 million downloads within the first four weeks of its launch. The service has continued to grow, with 17.5 million downloaded in the first quarter of 2020, including 14.1 million in the U.S., topping Netflix’s 11.9 million.
With movie theaters closed down by the coronavirus, Disney+, Amazon and other services have started to make current hit movies available via streaming, attracting subscribers and building usage.
The report, which looked at 35 streaming services from August 2019 through March 2020, said that the program that had the biggest impact was Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty, which powered the most dramatic and lasting increase on daily active users and total sessions in the industry.
But while content is king, even in the streaming world, the report said that the top performing streaming services drop success by combining quality content with a comprehensive customer engagement strategy.
Top performers tended to send action-based messages to subscribers and were more likely to send messages on mobile-native channels.
According to the report, the top 10 streaming apps by in app revenue in 2020 in the U.S. are YouTube at $60 million, Disney+ with $45 million, Netflix with $30.1 million, Hulu with $23.5 million and HBO Now, with $17.4 million.
