Disney+ is coming out ahead of Netflix during the coronavirus streaming wars. The coronavirus pandemic has shut down the entertainment industry, causing numerous delays in production, as well as stalling the theatrical release of several big titles. Disney is aware of the usefulness of streaming platforms during this time, and has taken recent drastic measures to deliver content customers — many of whom are practicing social distancing and/or quarantines. Such maneuvers have immediately put them a great deal ahead of Netflix in the coronavirus-inspired streaming wars.
Hollywood studios are reacting to the outbreak of COVID-19 in a variety of ways. Studios with streaming platforms are no exception. However, the conventional response to this pandemic from traditional Hollywood outfits has been to pause productions like The Little Mermaid and/or delay the release of titles like A Quiet Place: Part II. In contrast, streaming platforms are ramping up the amount of content they're delivering to meet the demand of the public. While the coronavirus is putting a stop to theatrical Hollywood productions, it's inspired a war of content between streaming platforms.
Such competition has emerged as the practice of streaming movies in your living room proves to be extremely appealing to citizens across the globe, opting to stay inside their homes to prevent further spreading of the coronavirus; these house-bound people need something to do to pass the time indoors. Streaming services like Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime, as well as platforms through which one can rent and purchase movies, are extremely appealing. All of these entities can provide feature films for people without risking them to exposure to the coronavirus.
This past Friday, Disney announced that Frozen 2 would be dropping on the Disney+ streaming platform on March 15th. That's three months earlier than its original Disney+ debut release date. This spur-of-the-moment decision was done to give families something to watch while they're all stuck inside avoiding the coronavirus. The same reasoning is behind why Disney is planning to release Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker on digital retailers three days earlier than expected. Disney is rapidly making vast adjustments to its streaming release plans to meet the demands of isolated viewers looking for entertainment. The same cannot be said for Netflix, however.
As of this writing, Netflix has not made any kind of tweaks to their release schedule, let alone any modulations to better accommodate viewers looking for new content on their streaming platforms. This means their only new feature film release on March 13, 2020 was the mystery drama Lost Girls. For the rest of the month, Netflix's original features slate is reliant on smaller-scale thrillers and dramas. Such gloomy titles aren't the kind of escapist fare audiences tend to automatically turn to while seeking a distraction from events the coronavirus. Netflix's reason for coming up so short right now in providing original movies for subscribers is their lack of fully-completed productions to drop at a moment's notice.
Disney's streaming offerings traffic in older content already released to theaters. Titles like Frozen 2 and The Rise of Skywalker have been finished for months now, which makes it simple to drop them on streaming platforms on a moment's notice. By contrast, Netflix's streaming plans are focused on creating original movies from the ground up. Such fare is far less fluid in terms of when they can be released. Netflix can't drop upcoming features like The Old Guard or Extraction immediately since those films still require plenty of post-production before they're ready for the public. Netflix's focus on this type of original content does have its advantages in many areas. However, in the context of providing new streaming content during the coronavirus outbreak, it's a key reason why they're lagging so significantly behind Disney's streaming titles.