The Netflix logo is seen on their office in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S. July 16, 2018. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

NEW YORK (Reuters Breakingviews) - Netflix is making the most of a near-captive audience. The $190 billion streaming service is benefiting as stay-at-home edicts around the globe have people searching for online distractions. And it doesn’t share the various worries besetting rivals like Walt Disney, AT&T and Apple.

With so many competing forms of entertainment now off-limits – from movie theaters to restaurants to shopping malls – it’s a good time to be a streaming-video company. The firm led by Reed Hastings on Tuesday unveiled it added almost 16 million global subscribers in the first quarter, ahead of analysts’ forecasts of 7.5 million, according to Refinitiv. All told, Netflix now has 183 million customers worldwide. Hastings warned the sharp rise may be short-lived once people are allowed to move around more freely.

Rival Disney+ has benefited, too, hitting some 50 million global paying customers just five months after its November launch, more than halfway to its 2024 target of 90 million. But the Magic Kingdom is suffering in unique ways that even baby Yoda can’t fix. The cancellation of live sporting events has left ESPN bereft. Disney overall also furloughed about 100,000 theme-park and hotel workers, according to the Financial Times.

AT&T hasn’t even launched its streaming service yet: HBO Max is slated to land in homes on May 27 for $15 a month, though the telecom firm will make it free for some customers.

The virus-instigated halt to producing new content in Hollywood and elsewhere will impact all the players. It looks unlikely AT&T’s offering will be able to kick off with the highly anticipated “Friends” reunion. Apple TV’s flagship series “The Morning Show” had to stop filming its second season.

Hastings said in his investor letter that Netflix’s pipeline is stocked for now and it’s on track to release all its originally planned shows and films for the second quarter. Netflix’s cash burn will also drop to some $1 billion compared to the previous projection of around $2.5 billion.

Netflix’s market value has ballooned by $30 billion, or nearly 20%, since the coronavirus took hold in the United States at the end of February, a shade off its all-time high last week; over the same period the S&P 500 Index has fallen almost a fifth and Disney is down 15%. Netflix has locked down its first-mover advantage.