Netflix, Nickelodeon announce tie-up to combat Disney+

Netflix is working hard to compete with the recently-launched Disney+. It is now working towards combating Disney's biggest strength – content aimed at kids.

The company has struck a deal with Nickelodeon to produce kid-friendly content. The companies will together produce and stream Nickelodeon's properties such as "Rocko's Modern Life: Static Cling," "Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus" and the "Avatar" based action series, "Avatar: The Last Airbender," according to the New York Times.

Neither company has stated that they are competing with Disney, but the motives are obvious, given the timing.

Disney has a definitive advantage over Netflix because its vast library of classic kids' content, such as "Cinderella" and "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."

Disney+ has already got 3.2 million app downloads on the first day of its launch, even though it is currently available only in the US and the Netherlands.

Netflix total downloads in the Google Play Store stand at 150 million, which is gargantuan in comparison, but Disney claims it already has 10 million subscribers, which means that it is gaining popularity even faster than Netflix at launch. It is an achievement for a service that is less than a week old.

Other competitors are also throwing their hat in the race for capturing the market for kid-friendly content – HBO has already bought "Sesame Street" and the entire library of shows such as "Studio Ghibli" for its HBO Max streaming service.

Netflix is not only seeking out partnerships for content, it has also hired many animators and writers to create content for it, including people who have previously worked for Disney and Pixar. Netflix executive Melissa Cobb told Variety that around 60 percent of the audience comes from such content, even though the streaming service has gained recognition for risqué shows such as "Narcos".

"This is a huge area for Netflix, but it wasn't an area where Netflix had invested a lot of energy or money toward original content. My brief was to expand that slate," she stated.

Let the streaming wars begin!