Disney+ is set to scale up its operations this summer with a significant expansion planned into 42 more countries and 11 territories.
The countries the streamer is set to expand into are: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Bahrain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Malta, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Oman, Palestine, Poland, Qatar, Romania, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Vatican City and Yemen.
The 11 territories are: the Faroe Islands, French Polynesia, French Southern Territories, St. Pierre and Miquelon Overseas Collective, Åland Islands, Sint Maarten, Svalbard & Jan Mayen, British Indian Ocean Territory, Gibraltar, Pitcairn Islands and St. Helena.
The launch is predicted to massively affect Disney’s subscriber growth, which after a strong start from November 2019 of an initial 100 million-plus subscribers after just less than 18 months started to slow dramatically.
At the end of Q3 2021, the platform reported 116 million subscribers with only a 2.1 million subscriber raise between then and its end of Q4 data, drastically missing Wall Street expectations of 10 million additional net subscribers. COVID-19 related production delays were sighted as a reason for the stagnation.
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Commenting on the announcement, Reza Hashemi, CEO of film and TV discovery platform Binj said: “Giant streaming platforms entering new markets should foster a new wave of localized original content to be released, as we saw similarly with what happened with Netflix.
“This could be seen both positively and negatively, as you are opening up a pandora’s box of possibilities both for the audience and the industry.”
“Yes, day one it will mean a variety of new opportunities and new content but the question always remains with a platform like Disney, in the long term will they become a territorial monopoly resulting in the eradication of local platforms.”
In its continuing competition with Netflix, Disney+ also recently took key titles from its rival including: Modern Family, How I Met Your Mother, Sons Of Anarchy, New Girl and Prison Break. Netflix is also set to lose hit series Homeland in the coming weeks also. The loss of content, according to research firm Digital i, could result in the loss of up to 750,000 subscribers equalling around $120 million annually, specifically in the U.K. market.
Regardless, with an estimated 14 million subscribers Netflix is still the most popular streaming service in the UK as of the end of last year, ahead of both Amazon and Disney+.
“The viewing to these six titles, five of which have already left Netflix, was significant in the UK,” said Ali Vahdati, the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Digital i.
“This means a significant number of subscribers will begin to question their Netflix subscription and look to the new home of their favourite content, Disney+.”
Last week, Netflix also posted its lowest amount of new global subscribers since 2010.
