According to the reports, strong subscriber additions by Disney+ in the latest quarter helped Walt Disney Co's flagship streaming service to close the gap with market leader Netflix Inc, but industry watchers focused on future prospects for streaming in a saturating market.

Disney+ added 11.8 million subscribers in the first quarter as viewers signed up to watch hits like ‘The Mandalorian’ and ‘Black Widow.’

Besides, earlier look at the numbers showed some of that boost was from Disney's move to bundle Disney+ and ESPN+ with one tier of its Hulu Live service.

Michael Nathanson, Analyst, Moffett Nathanson , “two million subscriptions were a result of the automatic bundle with Hulu Live and another 2.6 million came from Disney+ Hotstar, which generates about $1 monthly revenue per user.”

Russ Mould, investment director, AJ Bell says, “Disney may have room to grow on the streaming subscription front but at some point it will hit saturation point. Disney's shares rose more than five percent in early trading.”

Sophie Lund-Yates, analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown says, “for now, Disney is defending its competitive position against older players, but this isn't the walk in the park one might expect from a company with a content cupboard already brimming with famous blockbusters.”

Disney is still well behind Netflix in terms of overall subscriber numbers. The two-year-old streaming service's total subscribers stood at 129.8 million as of last year, as viewers paid to watch ‘The Book of Boba Fett’, and ‘The Beatles: Get Back’ and Oscar-nominated animated film ‘Encanto.’ Netflix had about 222 million total paid memberships, as of 2021.

Reports suggest that, the importance of local content as the U.S. market saturates. The company recently appointed Rebecca Campbell to double down on international content.

Netflix has successfully leaned on locally produced content to counter the lack of legacy blockbusters, attracting millions of international subscribers with shows such as ‘Squid Game’, ‘Money Heist’ and ‘Lupin.’

Joe McCormack, senior analyst,Third Bridge says, “with Disney+ coming to 42 more countries in the summer of 2022, the international growth story may prove more important than the U.S.”