Disney+ (DIS, $139.63) gears up to give Netflix (NFLX, $372.57) stiff competition

Shares of Walt Disney have risen by ~15% since the company’s announcement of its new $6.99 per-month Disney+ streaming service starting later this year. The company plans to stream family-friendly content and will be undercutting the price of the standard Netflix charges by nearly 50%.

This strategy, according to many analysts, could hit Netflix with stiff competition as it has thus far enjoyed a near monopoly in the online streaming space.

A random survey of 602 current Netflix subscribers reveals that 14.5% of the current users are willing to switch to Disney+. That means Netflix may lose 9 million customers by the end of the year, accounting for a loss of $116.9 million in revenue on a monthly basis.

However, this is not the first time that Netflix has been threatened with loss of subscriptions. In 2017, about 20% of subscribers considered dropping subscriptions when Disney pulled its content from the platform. The threat was, however, not followed through.

But with the actual launch of an alternative service, if 2.2% of the survey respondents confirm that they’d be definitely cancelling their Netflix subscriptions, it would mean a loss of 1.3 million users for the streaming giant.

Additionally, 20% of the respondents say that they stay on both the platforms giving Disney a chance to win over Netflix customers with a more affordable service. Further, Disney’s family-friendly content could be another reason why families with children may prefer Disney+ to Netflix.