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Disney acquires own streaming facilities, will pull Netflix content

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Re: Disney acquires own streaming facilities, will pull Netflix content

#81

Post by shmerl »

jethro_tell wrote: post #49
shmerl wrote: post #22

Collusion of content ownership and distribution causes such mess. It should really be prevented by anti-trust, and if it doesn't prevent it, something is seriously broken and not working as it should.

actually, it's distribution decoupled from actual value creation that has given us things like 4 hour football games with 10 minutes of live play. I would prefer that content is sold without need for a middle man. Seems easy when spotify does it and there are no commercials but they aren't doing 4k streams. I think top quality spotify is 240 or 320kBPS. Netflix needs 4x that for their lowest, "wouldn't watch it on my…

> I would prefer that content is sold without need for a middle man.

Not everyone can afford a CDN and a lot of other things in between the source and the user, especially creators. Sure, in theory they can just sell video from their sites, but in practice infrastructure costs a lot of money.

Unless video will move to decentralized distribution (pirated one did already, so why can't legal one too), distributors will have their piece of the pie.

Re: Disney acquires own streaming facilities, will pull Netflix content

#82

Post by bluedino »

fullshark wrote: post #46
Anatidae wrote: post #30

If every studio thinks I'm going to pay them $10+ a month to stream their content, they are going to be very mistaken. I can't imagine that a lot of people want to spend the collective hundreds of dollars to sign up for all the streaming services. It's almost asking to drive people to torrents. Now, if Disney does something like $30/year or something really affordable - sure. I might do that on a whim. I guess it's a…

I would pay $20 a month if it had every disney movie ever, and every new release after a certain time period. I imagine there are a lot of parents that would as well.

I'd pay $5/movie to just own them

Re: Disney acquires own streaming facilities, will pull Netflix content

#83

Post by jacobr1 »

nxsynonym wrote: post #69
Anatidae wrote: post #30

If every studio thinks I'm going to pay them $10+ a month to stream their content, they are going to be very mistaken. I can't imagine that a lot of people want to spend the collective hundreds of dollars to sign up for all the streaming services. It's almost asking to drive people to torrents. Now, if Disney does something like $30/year or something really affordable - sure. I might do that on a whim. I guess it's a…

Agreed. I only pay for netflix and HBO (and amazon, but that's a bonus for paying for prime). HBO doesn't feel like "extra" because it's always been an optional add-on that costs more. First all the "major" studios will split and start charing $10/month. Then adds will start creeping back in. Before you know it everyone will be paying for an ad-hoc cable subscription. I think a better option would be to do what Amazo…

> I'm already annoyed when I have to go from Netflix to Amazon to find a movie/show I want to see but can't remember where it is.

This problem was solved for me by Roku search on my roku device. It still is something I'd rather not need to do, but the search interface is just as good as the dedicated ones for amazon or netflix and shows you the results across all services.

Re: Disney acquires own streaming facilities, will pull Netflix content

#84

Post by protomyth »

I figured we'd get a to point where Netflix[1] is the home of small studio and indie content while the mega-studios would have their own service. Disney has a current and back catalog that would make $20 a month golden.

As an exercise, let's say BBC America started a service with the entire BBC / BBC American catalog. I get the feeling a lot of people would be fine with subscribing. WB would probably do ok, but I'm iffy on CBS / Paramount.

1) I don't think Hulu quite has the chance but it still might

Re: Disney acquires own streaming facilities, will pull Netflix content

#85

Post by PaulHoule »

This has been coming a long time.

Netflix's original business model was to ship DVDs in the mail which was great because they did not need any special deal with Hollywood to do it. In the meantime they built a strong brand.

After the first pivot, they streamed online, which required writing deals with the studios. Back then they were happy enough that somebody was paying them more money that they gave Netflix easy terms, in particular letting Netflix keep usage analytics so as to keep the studios in as much of the dark as possible as to what value Netflix got from it.

Pivot 2 was producing their own content. Any contract they are likely to get for studios is going to be on a per subscription basis, but if they produce their own content, the cost is constant but the value goes up as you add subs.

Owning their own IP scales better as they get bigger, and also as they've gotten bigger, studios are striking harder bargains. Thus the Netflix catalog has been shrinking. The real "Netflix optimization problem" is about buying a catalog of economical content then presenting it to users in a way that they feel they get enough value to pay for the subscription.

Disney is completely right to go direct to consumer because of the strength of the Disney and ESPN brands. The cable business will be eroded, but many sports fans are fanatics and will spend a lot for content if they want it. (Think of the market for AAA video games.)

Similarly, cable is not that enteraining to children, so many parents get Netflix for their kids, a package of Disney content without the crap you find on cable could be a hit.

Re: Disney acquires own streaming facilities, will pull Netflix content

#86

Post by px1999 »

nxsynonym wrote: post #69
Anatidae wrote: post #30

If every studio thinks I'm going to pay them $10+ a month to stream their content, they are going to be very mistaken. I can't imagine that a lot of people want to spend the collective hundreds of dollars to sign up for all the streaming services. It's almost asking to drive people to torrents. Now, if Disney does something like $30/year or something really affordable - sure. I might do that on a whim. I guess it's a…

Agreed. I only pay for netflix and HBO (and amazon, but that's a bonus for paying for prime). HBO doesn't feel like "extra" because it's always been an optional add-on that costs more. First all the "major" studios will split and start charing $10/month. Then adds will start creeping back in. Before you know it everyone will be paying for an ad-hoc cable subscription. I think a better option would be to do what Amazo…

Long term, we'll probably wind up with a couple of major marketplaces that provide a UI that ties together content bundles that you've purchased from different distributors (who will actually serve up their catalogs).

It's a bit depressing how similar that sounds to how cable networks work. Or platform specific app stores.

Re: Disney acquires own streaming facilities, will pull Netflix content

#87

Post by fullshark »

bluedino wrote: post #82
fullshark wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would pay $20 a month if it had every disney movie ever, and every new release after a certain time period. I imagine there are a lot of parents that would as well.

I'd pay $5/movie to just own them

Disney movies are $20/movie mostly.

Re: Disney acquires own streaming facilities, will pull Netflix content

#88

Post by netsharc »

Anatidae wrote: post #30

If every studio thinks I'm going to pay them $10+ a month to stream their content, they are going to be very mistaken. I can't imagine that a lot of people want to spend the collective hundreds of dollars to sign up for all the streaming services. It's almost asking to drive people to torrents. Now, if Disney does something like $30/year or something really affordable - sure. I might do that on a whim. I guess it's a…

I've heard a friend complain about having to subscribe to Amazon Prime, Apple Music and some other service because each had their own "exclusive artist"...

Re: Disney acquires own streaming facilities, will pull Netflix content

#89

Post by mschuster91 »

Time to dig out that torrent downloader on my NAS, it seems.

Why can't the movie industry learn from the success of Spotify? No one is pirating music any more because Spotify has everything and their dog without geo restriction (at least as far as I am aware), and those who want to buy music can buy unprotected stuff from Apple Music... only the movie industry is bent on total control and profit extraction.

Re: Disney acquires own streaming facilities, will pull Netflix content

#90

Post by throwaway5752 »

fullshark wrote: post #46
Anatidae wrote: post #30

If every studio thinks I'm going to pay them $10+ a month to stream their content, they are going to be very mistaken. I can't imagine that a lot of people want to spend the collective hundreds of dollars to sign up for all the streaming services. It's almost asking to drive people to torrents. Now, if Disney does something like $30/year or something really affordable - sure. I might do that on a whim. I guess it's a…

I would pay $20 a month if it had every disney movie ever, and every new release after a certain time period. I imagine there are a lot of parents that would as well.

How long would it take you to break even with installing Plex, buying the worthwhile Disney movies on DVD, and ripping them at $20/mo? 2 years? They have the same problem with ESPN. I want 15-30 minutes a day of MLB scores and highlights and don't want to pay $30/mo for it, even if it includes a channel for every college sport, the ESPPies, and original programming.
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