On the movie side, Disney is also about to reboot the "Star Wars" franchise—with "The Force Awakens," set for release in December. It's the first of three films being produced since Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012 for $4 billion. Stand-alone movies are also planned, such as a project exploring the backstory of a young Han Solo and "Star Wars: Rogue One" involving a heist surrounding Death Star plans. The six previously released "Star Wars" films have grossed more than $4.4 billion at the worldwide box office since 1977.  "'Star Wars' is going to be a monster. I think it's very hard to get in front of the Disney freight train right now," Greenfield said. "But everybody loves Disney right now. And I think that's part of the challenge. Disney is still exposed to the same problems in terms of advertising and the bundle sticking together."  The other factor working against Disney and the rest of big media is mobile, he said. "There are not major media companies that have any substantial presence on mobile … in terms of mobile penetration in terms of their apps [or] time spent."  Video viewing on mobile devices has soared in recent years. ZenithOptimedia—a media services network that's part of ad giant Publicis—predicts a 23 percent increase this year in the average amount of time people spend consuming online video each day.  At the same time, the new report, out last Friday, sees the number of people regularly watching traditional, linear TV peaking this year, and starting to decline for the first time in 2016.
The marketplace forces undermining traditional media conglomerates are being exploited by Netflix, media analyst Rich Greenfield tells CNBC.