Netflix (NFLX 0.22%) still commands the field of battle in the streaming wars, but Walt Disney (DIS +0.89%) is making significant inroads with its Disney+ service and it's beginning to take a toll on the industry giant.
Data from Nielsen shows that Netflix holds a commanding 28% share of the streaming market compared to Disney+ with 6%, but last year Netflix had a 31% share suggesting most of the gains Disney made have come from Netflix.
Image source: Walt Disney.
A portent of things to come
There are some troubling trends for Netflix in the Nielsen numbers. They show that Netflix owned the top 10 spots of most-streamed television shows, with The Office reigning supreme at 57 billion minutes. The next most popular shows was Grey's Anatomy, with over 39 billion minutes. No other service was able to crack the top tier of TV shows.
Yet this year Netflix doesn't have The Office in its lineup; the show moved to the Peacock streaming service from Comcast's NBCUniversal division on Jan. 1.
It was different for the movie side of the ledger. Disney+ owned seven of the top 10 films on the streaming services. No. 1 was the release of Frozen 2 followed by Moana.
Netflix had the other three leading films, including Secret Life of Pets 2, Dr. Seuss' The Grinch, and Spenser Confidential.
What is immediately apparent is that most of the top movies were kid-oriented, which would give Disney+ a competitive edge. Because it has such a deep library to tap into to put out more content, Disney is expected to keep taking share as it grows. Disney+ recently reported it had 86 million subscribers, and analysts expect it to eventually surpass Netflix.
The Nielsen data, though, is only based on four streaming services: Netflix, Disney+, Amazon.com's Prime Video, and Disney's Hulu.
