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Want more evidence that U.S. consumer price sensitivity just went next-level? Jason Platt Zolov, senior consultant for Hub Entertainment Research, presents the goods with the results of Hub’s latest “How to Monetize Video” survey. Concern about rising inflation is up 6 percentage points in just one year.
Netflix wasn’t the only streamer making big moves on engagement and affordability last week
Disney just put trusted lieutenant Alisa Bowen in charge of live service Fubo and is also mulling a free Disney+ tier
The long, slow decline in viewer engagement is getting uncomfortable for the world’s biggest streamers. As we mentioned in our Midweek issue, investors lately have punished Netflix shares over concerns about drooping audience interest in subsequent seasons of big hits.
Where to drive engagement if people keep forgetting about that long-in-returning Season 2? Maybe bundle with competitors, while also integrating “always-on” live channels to keep consumers from turning to YouTube, Tubi, the Roku Channel and similar free streaming options?
In January, Penske Media’s showbiz group also found major season-to-season drop-offs for Disney+ series.
Netflix’s challenges are also hovering over Disney (share prices are down nearly 15% in 2026). So too are some of the same solutions.
Recently crowned Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro continues to restructure the Magic Kingdom to his liking, including moving Disney+ President Alisa Bowen to run Fubo, of which Disney took a controlling share last fall and has merged with its own Hulu + Live TV.
So what’s it mean if one of the smallest and newest units in Disney’s vast empire suddenly gets an experienced new boss who formerly ran Disney+ and Hulu, two of its splashiest, most future-forward divisions?
It might just be a signal that pugnacious and independent Fubo co-founder David Gandler, whom Bowen replaced, wasn’t a good long-term fit for a big corporate gig, especially after bludgeoning Disney into settling his antitrust suit by buying 70% of his upstart company.
Or maybe it’s a signal that DIsney wants to build up a long-neglected, potentially vital corner of its entertainment business that could provide more revenue growth and user engagement. Use it or lose it, right?
Various reports suggest Disney has a newfound interest in leveraging bundles of live TV to get audiences to stick around, while using the lure of some free programming, even outside of Disney-controlled platforms, to engage viewers in everything else Disney does, including its much bigger parks and resorts operations.
It may be time. As a new report from Hub Entertainment Research suggests (see also Dan’s video conversation above with Hub senior consultant Jazon Platt-Zolov about their latest report, “How to Monetize Video”), high anxiety continues to grow over inflation and economic conditions facing a growing majority of consumers.
As Hub Entertainment Research’s latest “How to Monetize Video” survey of 1,600 U.S. entertainment consumers reveals, affordability concerns have increased in a big way in just one year.
