This has the potential to backfire on them. For example Disney gave exclusive rights back in the catalog days to select high end retailers and then their sales tanked because, surprise they could not comprehend that everyone did not shop in the high end malls that sold their products.
Not everyone has or wants Netflix and although they are hoping this exclusive arrangement will make everyone go and sign up (and no doubt some will) but may people, in fact the vast majority of Americans resent having to pay for cable or satellite and a bunch of stations they never watch and then get screwed again being forced to subscribe to another service.
As the media loves to point out more and more younger people are shedding their tethers altogether and opting out of TV in many forms. Some replace cable and satellite with services like Netflix and Amazon Prime but studies have shown repeatedly that the majority of these are young urban singles not families.
So the people most likely to buy their products and movie branded toys and collectables are the same people who are least likely to sign up for Netflix. Further, there are many people who subscribe and share the account with friends or other families in other locations.
Ultimately, I'm betting in a couple of years Disney will find some clever way out of this deal that lets them say we are not returning to the past but doing some innovative new marketing like sharing our content on multiple platforms. In other words streaming or broadcasting the content where their buyers are most likely to buy it and the billions of dollars worth of the junk they want to sell you through the promotion of those movies.
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