Disney, HBO And The Battle To Differentiate
Just Owning Premium Content Is Not Enough, It’s All Franchises
Not intended to be investment advice. I do currently own shares in Disney.
Disney and HBO are the two companies I think of when I think about premium entertainment content. Both of them are widely regarded as being a step above the competition (though Netflix is gaining fast) in terms of quality, proprietary content.
So why is it that Disney has been able to gain such incredible traction with its Disney+ streaming service with 86.8 million subscribers while HBO Max has languished with just 12.6 million subscribers? It’s not like Disney had a massive head start, launching just a few months before HBO did (plus HBO’s streaming services have been around for the better part of a decade with confusing names like HBO Now, HBO Go, etc.). Even if you count all the subscriptions to legacy HBO streaming services that are eligible to be converted to HBO Max, HBO’s total number of streaming subs is a mere 28.7 million.
I’ve long been of the view that in this day and age where both media distribution and content are becoming increasingly commoditized, truly differentiated entertainment content becomes even more valuable. Twenty years ago, entertainment content was limited and there was very little choice…
