App explosion: Disney's direct-to-consumer streaming revenue up 73pc to US$3.5b

Disney+ series The Mandalorian. Photo / Disney

Here's another marker of how Covid has accelerated the streaming revolution.

Disney has made staggering gains with its direct-to-consumer apps over the past 12 months - a development that has implications for local players from Sky TV to TVNZ to NZX-listed Vista Group.

This time last year, a total 60.3m households subscribed to Disney-owned Disney+, Hulu or ESPN+.

As of January 2, some 142.m were signed up.

That makes Disney easily the largest player in direct-to-the-consumer apps (where middle men old - eg Sky TV - and new - eg Netflix - are both cut out of the loop) and the second-largest player in the broader global streaming market behind Netflix (which recently reported a new high of 204m paying subs worldwide) and Amazon's Prime Video on around 100m (which could spike later this year as its billion-dollar Lord of the Rings TV series, currently being shot around West Auckland hits the streams).

The $9.99 a month Disney+ blazed the trail. Its number of subscribers jumped from the year-ago 26.5m (when the service was just two months old) to 94.9m as of January 2. A second series of Star Wars spinoff The Mandalorian and decision to skip theatres and release its live-action Mulan remake straight-to-streaming (with Disney+ subs having to stump up an extra US$29.99 to view it - at least during its first three months of release).

But the Magic Kingdom's two more mature direct-to-consumer streaming services clocked gains as well - Hulu from 27.2m to 35.4m and ESPN+ from 6.6m to 12.1m.

Hulu began as a co-operative venture between a number of US TV networks and Hollywood studios, but Disney took majority control in mid-2019. It continued to create more of its own content over 2020, and benefitted from rolling US lockdowns.

ESPN+ doubled its numbers in part because sport resumed sooner than expected, but also because Disney has been offering it in a bundle with Disney+ and Hulu for just US$12.99 per month.

And while Disney's total revenue for the quarter fell 22 per cent to US16.25 billion as its theme parks remained under the coronavirus kosh, direct-to-consumer streaming revenue jumped a stunning 75 per cent to US$3.5 billion.

And while Disney still makes a loss from streaming, the loss more than halved from US$1.1b to US$416 million.

Overall, Disney surprised analysts today by squeaking to a US$17m profit after two-quarters of losses amid the pandemic.

Disney+'s runaway success has seen other big content makers ape its model (as Discovery is doing with Discovery+), or relaunch or pep up earlier efforts (as Warner is doing with HBO Max, and ViacomCBS with Paramount+).

As content makers turn their direct-to-consumer apps global, local pay-TV providers have to surrender content (as Sky TV lost its Disney channels in NZ as Disney+ launched), coexist (as Sky will with Discovery+) or pay extra to maintain local exclusivity (as Sky may have done with its new ViacomCBS deal - Sky has not commented on terms - and will soon have to face with HBO).

TVNZ chief executive Kevin Kenrick cited direct-to-consumer apps as a reason the state broadcaster had to batten down the hatches, pull its dividend to the crown, and hike spending on local content.

And NZX-listed Vista Group - while still maintaining that people, being social animals, will return to cinemas en masse - has launched its own streaming platform for theatre owners to stream pay-per-view movies to punters' living rooms. The venture is still in its very early days, however, with only a handful of cinemas signed up.