In 2019 Disney+ launched with more than 10 originals, reaching 10 million sign-ups in a few days. Exclusives seem to attract new customers. But are those newcomers interested in other titles? Will they continue their subscription?
If fans of exclusives are interested in Disney+ as a service, they are likely to watch other titles. Disney can evaluate their investment on original titles, while competitors can compare with their churn rates. Investors can look closer at the return on profit (ROI) on original titles.
It seems that fans of Disney+ exclusives are highly interested in Disney+. The rates are higher than Netflix exclusive’s fans’ interest in Netflix. This implies that Disney+ exclusives have successfully invited loyal Disney, Star Wars and Marvel fans. Many will watch other titles. But as titles increase and diversify, the high level of interest raises a different issue.
Measuring customer interest with Twitter API
How can we measure customers’ interest? Today many turn to social media for new information. They follow accounts that seem continuously interesting.
Twitter provides limited but valuable information through Twitter Developer Platform. Using the data available, we’ve built a system called “Following Analysis” to answer our questions. Following Analysis measures how an account’s followers are following other accounts. It reveals how fans are interested in other brands, products, platforms, media and influencers.
From here on, we will mention a rather unfamiliar term, following rate. The rate shows the percentage of followers following another account.
Following rate = number of followers following another account / number of followers of the basis account
Please visit our other post for more information about Following Analysis.
How exclusives’ fans follow Disney+
The Mandalorian is a new Star Wars series for Disney+. As of December 2022, their official Twitter account(@themandalorian) has nearly 800,000 followers. Among those followers, 45.3% are following Disney+(@DisneyPlus).
In our terms, The Mandalorian’s following rate to Disney+ is 45.3%. This is higher than other platforms’ exclusives, which will be shown later. Many fans are interested in not only The Mandalorian, but Disney+ as a service.
Let’s look at another Disney+ exclusive, Loki. Loki‘s Twitter account (@LokiOfficial) has a 45.6% following rate towards Disney+, almost as same as The Mandalorian.
How exclusives’ fans follow Netflix
For comparison, let’s look at Netflix’s exclusive, The Witcher. The Witcher’s Twitter account(@witchernetflix) has over 530,000 followers. The following rate towards Netflix is 31.7%, lower than Disney+ exclusives.
Loyal fans are likely to watch other Disney+ titles
Both The Mandalorian and Loki fans show relatively high interest in Disney+. Disney’s investment in originals seems to be paying off, as fans are likely to watch other titles.
However, following rates towards its own service are not straightforward. A high rate can mean high loyalty but can also mean concentration on certain types of content. A low rate can mean low loyalty but may be a result of diverse content.
Official accounts tweet about various titles, sometimes too scattered to follow. Fans of an exclusive may continue their subscription, but not be interested in everything Disney+ offers. In fact, as Disney+ content increases and diversifies, following rates are likely to decline.
Recommendation system for ex-subscribers
Unlike cable TVs, switching between streaming services is easy, within a few clicks. To bring back customers, streaming services need a good recommendation system not only within its apps and websites, but externally.
How do you recommend to ex-customers while diversifying your content?
One solution is to separate accounts among different interests. Netflix has two official accounts in Japan. One is the official Netflix account (@NetflixJP) which tweets mostly about live action movies and TV programs. The other is an official account dedicated to anime (@NetflixJP_Anime). Prime Video also created its anime account Prime Video Anime (@PrimeVideoAnime) in September 2022.
Remaining questions
This post featured two Disney+ exclusives, but other exclusives might show different following rates. How are Pixar and National Geographic fans interested in Disney+?
Fans’ interest towards competing platforms is another topic, although you can get a sense from the charts above. How are Disney+ fans interested in Netflix?
Streaming services other than Disney+ have many exclusives too. How are the following rates of Netflix, Prime Video or HBO’s exclusives?
We will cover these topics in other posts. Please let us know your thoughts and questions via our Twitter account.
Thank you for reading!