The Walt Disney Co. has finally given in to the streaming shift that has completely altered the media landscape in the last few years and battered the company’s world-wide leader in sports programming, ESPN.

Disney DIS, -1.22% on Tuesday, laid out plans to launch a much awaited direct-to-consumer streaming service for ESPN to combat the damage the company has suffered from cord-cutting.

Read:What the ESPN streaming service will look like

Also read:ESPN preparing to lay off more on-air talent as struggles persist

The company also said it plans to nix its licensing deal with Netflix Inc. NFLX, -0.05% and pull its movies from the service and launch a Disney branded streaming service in 2019. Netflix shares fell on the news, but the response is most likely a knee-jerk reaction.

“While this will be a negative headline for Netflix, we expect the actual impact on the subscriber base to be minimal,” wrote Piper Jaffray analyst Michael Olson in a note to investors. “There is no question Disney content was nice to have, but we believe Netflix can find ways to re-allocate roughly $200 million annually to create similarly engaging content for its subscriber base.”

Netflix had and lost Disney content before, in 2011, which it was receiving it via a deal with Starz. Raymond James analyst Justin Patterson said if Netflix survived the loss then, the company should be fine, having added much more content in the meantime.

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For Disney, however, it could be too little, too late, according to BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield. In a blog post following Disney’s announcement, Greenfield lambasted the strategic steps the company and its Chief Executive Robert Iger have taken.

Disney Faces Tough Questions About ESPN

Greenfield is expecting Disney to lose up to $2 billion a year as it foregoes third-party revenue and invests heavily to build up content and start a streaming service from scratch.

“Disney’s announcement was light on details and did not sound terribly well hashed out. The announcement appeared designed to distract investors from Disney’s weak earnings and disappointing forward guidance,” Greenfield wrote. “Disney simply waited too long to make this critical decision.”

Fears of cord-cutting really took hold of the industry back in 2015, when a number of media companies and networks—Disney and ESPN included—reported a mass subscriber exodus.

Since then, a number of media companies have tried to adapt to changing consumer demands, inking content and digital distribution partnerships, introducing skinny bundles and launching new streaming platforms and live TV streaming services.

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Iger said at the time that he didn’t expect anything dramatic to happen in the next five years to warrant moving to an over-the-top platform accessible without a cable subscription.

One reason Disney took so long to take ESPN direct to consumers is because the bundle was great business for the network. ESPN has the highest affiliate fees in the industry.

While there aren’t many details about Disney’s direct-to-consumer service—including cost, what it will look like, or what will happen with Marvel and “Star Wars” content—some analysts are optimistic on the services potential, mainly because of its content.

“We view the Disney-branded direct-to-consumer initiative favorably as we believe Disney has one of the strongest portfolios of content in the industry with an impressive history of leveraging this [intellectual property] across multiple platforms,” J.P. Morgan analyst Alexia Quadrani wrote to investors.

Evercore analyst Vijay Jayant views the Disney-branded service as potentially disruptive as a subscription video-on-demand platform.

ESPN, however, adds more uncertainty to the outlook and heightens concerns of accelerating subscriber declines, according to Quadrani.

Disney reported on Tuesday that its third-quarter revenues suffered because of pressure on ESPN.

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Also read:ESPN struggles won’t go away, but Disney’s CEO thinks he has the answer

If Disney’s direct-to-consumer platforms are successful, Greenfield anticipates that will accelerate ESPN’s demise.

“The more content that consumers can obtain without a multichannel video subscription, not to mention more and more content without advertising, the less interest they will have in subscribing to the big multichannel video bundle,” he wrote.