The last few years have seen many pretenders to Netflix‘s position at the top of the streaming pile. Hulu, Amazon Prime, CBS All Access, HBO Now and YouTube TV have all taken a shot, but so far none have managed to take down the king.
Last year, it seemed like Disney+ would take a big bite of Netflix’s pie, as their service came out of the gate strong with The Mandalorian and an impressive selection from the Disney back catalogue. But, in a bit of a scheduling goof, they’ve failed to capitalize on the aforementioned show’s forward momentum with any new content to the same standard.
That’s why the results of a new survey by HighSpeedInternet.com doesn’t contain any surprises. They asked viewers about their streaming habits, which are especially pertinent given that many of us are stuck at home under lockdown due to Coronavirus. Specifically, the question was which streaming service they would subscribe to if they were only allowed one?
A whopping 47% of participants named Netflix as their choice. 14% plumped for Amazon Prime, 13.6% said Hulu, 13% sided with Disney+ and the rest were split among remaining services. The survey theorizes that if the three runner-ups really wanted to take down Netflix, they’d have to team up into a bundle of services with a single subscription for all three.
Participants were also asked what factored into their decision, with an overwhelming 75% saying that available content is most important. Less important factors were price and the user experience. When it comes to original programming, Netflix beats the others hands down, pumping a sizeable amount of their massive profits into hit shows like The Witcher. On top of that, they’ve demonstrated that they’re willing to take risks that other networks might not, even picking up shows like Lucifer that were cancelled on their original network.
But if I were Netflix, I wouldn’t get too over-confident. Pride comes before a fall and corporate history is littered with the skeletons of companies that assumed they were too big to fail.
