CoComelon caper: Disney nabs the rights to the world’s biggest kids show at Netflix’s expense

Disney has pulled off a major coup in the world of children’s entertainment. The Mouse House has struck a deal that will make Disney+ the new streaming home of CoComelon beginning in 2027.

Though the exact terms of the deal haven’t been publicly revealed, Bloomberg reported that Disney “will pay tens of millions of dollars annually” for the rights to Moonbug‘s prized preschool franchise.

Disney+’s gain will be Netflix‘s loss, as the pioneering streaming will lose access to a show that has been one of its most reliable sources of high viewership from young children since 2020. In 2024 alone, CoComelon content brought 231.1 million views to Netflix’s shores. That made it one of the biggest franchises of any kind in the streamer’s catalog.

Despite that high traffic, CoComelon’s numbers on Netflix are actually declining year-over-year. Bloomberg noted that CoComelon viewership on the platform has gone down by about 60% in recent years, and the show has fallen out of the top ten in some of Netflix’s recent viewership rankings.

CoComelon will continue to be available on YouTube, where it regularly tops our rankings of the platform’s most-watched channels. When you combine its viewership across multiple sources with its activity in sectors like film, live events, and retail, CoComelon is arguably the biggest kids’ franchise in the world.

The Disney deal will begin the same year as the anticipated premiere date for the upcoming CoComelon movie, and with help from the Mouse House, Moonbug may get more opportunities to expand the world of its prized possession. Moonbug’s parent company, Candle Media

, has strong ties to Disney through its co-founders, former Disney execs Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs. Bolstered by those connections, Moonbug secured a deal that will bring its popular Blippi franchise to Disney parks.

Even if Disney declines to pursue a new kids’ attraction called the CoComelon CoCoaster, the distribution deal cements Disney+ as the go-to source for children’s entertainment. The SVOD service already offers Bluey, which by some measures was the most-watched kids’ show on streaming in 2024. Now, by adding all seasons of the main CoComelon show to its library, Disney+ will make itself even more appealing among toddlers.

Netflix will get a consolation prize out of all this. It will still stream some CoComelon shows, such as the spinoff CoComelon Lane, and it will retain access to other Moonbug properties like Blippi. But for Netflix, the key to moving past the Disney deal might be a 56-year-old children’s franchise. The streamer is the new home of Sesame Street, so it seems to be trading CoComelon’s JJ for classic characters like Cookie Monster and Elmo.