Published: July 19, 2024

Disney+ Scrambles to Keep Up as YouTube Grabs Young Viewers

By Movieguide® Contributor

As YouTube continues to capture the attention of young people, Disney+ is scrambling to make changes to keep up.

Per Streamable, “Disney+ isn’t resting on a strong first-quarter earnings report. The streaming service has designs to be profitable by the end of this year and is pursuing numerous strategies to boost viewership. It has already rolled out a huge selection of content from Hulu for customers who subscribe to both services, and will introduce sports from ESPN later this year.”

All platforms care about the number of subscribers they have, but Disney specifically uses a metric called “hours per subscriber” to understand their customers’ engagement.

Disney wants to increase the hours per subscriber number, a goal it will try to hit even if it means implementing addictive technology.

“New features in the works at Disney include a more-personalized algorithm to power content recommendations, customized promotional art for new shows and movies based on subscriber’s tastes and usage history, and emails sent to viewers who stop watching in the middle of a series reminding them to finish, according to people familiar with the matter,” the Wall Street Journal reported.

Getting customers glued to their screens is also the aim of Disney’s new live TV channels.

“The company is developing pop-up live channels aimed at entertaining viewers who don’t have the time or energy to scroll through viewing options, people familiar with the matter said,” the WSJ noted, explaining these channels could play through the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, for example, and may or may not feature ads.

These changes could come within the next six months.

But will they be enough to keep Disney competitive with the other streaming platforms? While hit films like INSIDE OUT 2 certainly boost the brand, young people don’t necessarily seek out long-form content.

Findings from Neilson concluded that

“Kids much prefer the short-form videos on YouTube to anything that they can find with on-demand streamers like Disney+,”  The Streamable concluded.

“YouTube continued its run as the top streaming platform and tied its previous platform-best share of 9.7%, which it set in March 2024,” Nielsen noted. Disney, meanwhile, was near the bottom of the list at just 1.8%.

Movieguide® previously reported on YouTube’s dominance:

YouTube continues to dominate streaming, a title it’s held for over a year and a half, causing other players in the industry to view it as both a friend and a foe.

Nielsen’s May 2024 TV usage report revealed that YouTube accounted for 9.7% of all TV usage that month, handily beating out Netflix’s second place 7.6% of TV usage, which was more than double that of any other platform. This marked nearly a year and a half of holding the crown just above Netflix’s head.

While YouTube isn’t typically thought of as a streaming service, its dominance in the TV space puts it at odds with traditional media, causing streaming platforms to consider it when creating their long-term strategies.

Disney, for example, has turned to YouTube’s massive audience to promote its content, particularly children’s content, posting clips from upcoming shows to generate hype. While it has yet to do so, it has also considered posting full episodes of shows from Hulu and Disney+ onto YouTube to entice viewers to subscribe to its platforms.

Watch IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE →

Watch IT’S THE SMALL THINGS, CHARLIE BROWN →