Streaming battleground: Disney+ vs. Netflix

The streaming war has been hot, but it just got hotter as Disney launched its own streaming service last week (though not without a few hiccups). There has been much speculation as to how this will impact Netflix‘s already slowing subscription rates. Initial reaction from Wall Street is surprisingly positive for Netflix, with stocks up 8% in the past week, but it’s far too early to tell the impacts long term.

What we do have insight into is how each company is approaching growth in the near term, by analyzing LinkUp’s job data. Job openings are presumed to represent an eventual hire, thus growth in job openings can indicate growth in business.

Increasingly, streaming services have had to produce high quality content to stay relevant among the competition. So we took a look at Netflix and Disney’s job listings data for positions specifically in art, design, entertainment, sports and media in recent months for clues.

This revealed that Disney has increased hires for these types of positions by almost 50% in recent months, compared to Netflix which has seen flattened hiring for these roles during the same period. This could suggest that Disney is ramping up original content for its streaming service, while Netflix is backing off. Disney has a much more robust background in the production of original content, so it would be smart of Netflix to ramp up its own production efforts if they really want to compete, but that’s not happening thus far.

Interested in the job market data behind this post? Contact us to learn more about LinkUp job data.