Disney, Netflix, Apple: is anyone winning the streaming wars?

ATEENAGED GIRL who periodically transforms into a giant panda is the improbable star of “Turning Red”, a coming-of-age movie from Disney due out next month. The world’s biggest media company, which will celebrate its 100th birthday next year, is no adolescent. But Disney is going through some awkward changes of its own as it reorganises its business—worth $260bn—around the barely two-year-old venture of video-streaming.So far the experiment has been a success. Its streaming operation, Disney+, initially aimed for at least 60m subscribers in its first five years, ending in 2024. It got there in , and now hopes for as many as 260m subscribers by that date. Bob Chapek, who took over as boss just before the pandemic, is convinced that Disney’s future lies in , his “north star”. On February 9th the company reported that Disney+ had added a healthy 11.8m subscribers in the latest quarter, shoring up its position as one of the most likely survivors of the ruthless contest that has become known as the streaming wars.