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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

#411

Post by bearcobra »

pfranz wrote: post #284
bearcobra wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, a debate about pricing is totally separate from the arguments about the availability of options to buy content. You can 1) Buy individual episodes 2) Buy individual season 3) Buy individual channels (FX, HBO, with ESPN and Disney coming soon and more and more networks offering this option) 4) Buy bundles of content (cable, Netflix, Hulu, etc.) Availability windows also seem to be designed to match consumers de…

If they were separate arguments, then album sales wouldn't have dropped after iTunes started selling $0.99 a song. CD Singles have been around forever but everyone paid the extra couple dollars to get the rest of the album even though in many cases very little effort was made producing the rest of the album.

To clarify, I don't mean that the delivery options won't have an impact on price. People often seem to frame the arguments around videos services as them not providing the unit of content they want (like marssaxman above), when more often than not they do. The real complaint is usually just what your saying, they don't offer it at the desired price, despite a ton of unbundling from the old model. That's a fair critique to make, although I'm hopeful the market is able to sort it out

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

#412

Post by w0rd-driven »

So far no one has mentioned something that has my tinfoil hat tingling like a mofo. With Net Neutrality being the uncertainty that it is, why would Disney choose to be potentially burdened like this? I see a few possible scenarios: 1) They know something we don't. 2) This move has become a necessity, which I highly doubt given their enormous catalog now. 3) They see the value in pursuing this endeavor no matter the cost.

It's hard to look this up for me, so forgive me, but my assumption is Disney is not one of the big companies that can control the internet. I don't believe BAMtech has peering such as Netflix has caching servers like Youtube so I think this would be very interesting to watch closely.

My personal feeling is that if net neutrality is completely abandoned, Disney has more than enough money to print its way to making this work. I don't know if it'll be good or bad for them to be beholden to the same restrictions as other streaming services or if they'll magically become exempt. With all the properties in Disney's possession now I'm very much reminded of the phrase "too big to fail" but I'm very interested to see how this plays out. I'm hoping for a net positive for everyone involved but lessons of the past have me expecting the worst.

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

#413

Post by akhilcacharya »

daigoba66 wrote: post #237
nxsynonym wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> HBO doesn't feel like "extra" because it's always been an optional add-on that costs more. Disney Channel used to be a premium, ad-free channel.

I'm fairly certain that it's still ad-free.

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

#414

Post by whatusername »

scottLobster wrote: post #118
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.

That's 12 blu-rays a year. Do your kids really watch THAT much Disney? You could buy every new Disney movie each year and have extra slots to fill out the backlog for that price, plus de-facto ownership of the data.

Disney movies for the kids, Marvel/Star Wars for me...

That sums up a large % of the Netflix viewing in my house.

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

#415

Post by BooneJS »

I realize I'm late to the discussion, but even Netflix and Amazon know that Content is King. Networks had to battle it out over the TV medium, and now they're doing it online.

Everyone wanted a la carte Cable TV instead of forced bundles. We're now getting it.

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

#416

Post by jalaziz »

I think this is a terrible idea, but time will tell. As a former Hulu employee, I can say that the media rights business is a mess. It took us (and Netflix) a very long time to convince media companies that the future is streaming. Now that they understand that, it's natural that they want to control all the revenue streams for their content.

What they fail to understand is that online streaming is not easy. Netflix and Hulu have invested a lot of resources into their tech stacks. Also, have you tried building an app that works on all the different streaming devices out there? It's annoyingly difficult. You have to do all that, keep up with the latest technologies (e.g. 4K), and still provide unique features and value. Storing the content is the easiest part.

Point is, media companies should stick to what they do best and let the likes of Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon do what they do best.

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

#417

Post by dingo_bat »

samstave wrote: post #404
raldi wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 1999, Qwest had a 30-second commercial that seemed incredibly futuristic at the time, talking about a hotel where "every room has every movie ever made in every language anytime day or night" and it seemed impossibly futuristic. Not 20 years later, the technology for this is already well-established; the only thing stopping it is that the owners of the films don't want to make them available this way. https://www.…

Gee -- I wonder why the Qwest CEO went to prison... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Nacchio

Wtf they actually sent him to jail for refusing to give customer data to the NSA. No wonder we hardly see any resistance nowadays.

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

#418

Post by jhbadger »

mjevans wrote: post #124
px1999 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Long term, it'll be the DRM free copies that are preserved for future generations to enjoy the historical context of.

Yes -- just like how the copies of 8-bit computer games that we can run today on emulators are generally the cracked copies rather than the copy-protected (old-school DRM) originals.

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

#419

Post by DigitalSea »

I am fast running out of room in my life for yet another streaming service. I already pay for Netflix, Spotify and a couple of other services. It is all becoming too much, if Disney thinks I am going to pay $10 per month for their service they are sadly mistaken. Just because you own Star Wars does not mean people will pay for your platform to exclusively watch it.

I believe this is a huge mistake on Disney's part. Understandably, they want a piece of the pie that Netflix is enjoying but they'll need to offer something pretty special to entice myself and others to signup. If anything, this is just going to make people torrent whenever they encounter some Disney content they want to watch they could previously get on Netflix.

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

#420

Post by OkGoDoIt »

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…

Isn’t this kind of what we all wanted? Split up the monolithic cable package?

The idea of getting almost everything we could ever want through one $10 a month subscription with Netflix is almost too good to be true, I would expect in the long term the average person will end up paying about the same as they used to with a cable bill, ideally spread among multiple providers.

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