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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

#751

Post by mrisoli »

kodablah wrote: post #297
mrisoli wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am very curious how much money the broadcasters are making with this strategy, and how much money the leagues or ESPN are letting on the table by just allowing this to happen. Football(soccer for Americans) is definitely the worst offender here, I know it is much more difficult to package and sell these streams because leagues are so fragmented, but if FIFA could use their weight to pull it off it would be gigantic…

If you have a decent cable package in the states, you can stream EPL (NBC sports app), Bundesliga, UEFA, (Fox Sports 2 Go for last 2), English Championship, La Liga, Serie A, and Ligue 1 (last 4 Bein Sports). Granted I haven't confirmed whether they carry all games. But those are perfect examples of regional restrictions because that's US only.

Far from that. I am a Brazilian in Europe, cable packages here are terrible, can't get any of the bigger European leagues(and of course, nothing from South America), I have relegated myself to just catch up with the news and watch bigger matches in a bar every now and then.

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

#752

Post by nebabyte »

bendauphinee wrote: post #240
DigitalJack wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean no offense, but I found amusement in this post. It used to be that people hated cable bundles so much that they would say they would rather pay $10/month a channel for the few they watch rather than the $80/month for a bundle of hundreds of channels with only a few worth watching. Now that we have that, are we living the dream? No, we want it for a tenth of the cost.

I don't think it's about paying that high a cost, I think it's about having to chase it all over the place. I'd pay double or maybe triple for Netflix, as long as it meant I could get most or all of the streaming content I wanted in one place. This is one reason why Steam is so popular.

As far as pricing goes, steam has the benefit of games being much less excludable than media. If you want a racing game or shooter and can'tafford the biggest titles, there're always other alternatices that're cheaper. This keeps the biggest titles' pricing in check or at least anchor them around value marks people tend to like (40 or etc)

Media by contrast is very steep. Either you're at the top of your genre or you're not worth it for those looking for the former. If you want an epic fantasy story GoT still beats out other shows cropping up around the same theme (even if you think the latter have better story or so on, that's not what drives dollars). If you want space operas you're not going to settle for less than Star Wars.

These "staples" and their exclusivity create a high value proposition greedy execs can't ignore, and one that they don't worry as much will give their competition an opening.

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

#753

Post by nebabyte »

cookiecaper wrote: post #450
dasil003 wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a la carte because for decades you had to buy bundles of schlock from your cable company to get the one thing you wanted (typically ESPN). Presumably you want finer-grained a la carte, like individual shows and movies. You can get that today via iTunes but it is insanely expensive, and it doesn't really make economic sense because not enough consumers watch little enough TV for that to make sense, therefore the…

When you say "market forces", it is important to understand we are operating within the confines of the completely arbitrary market dictated by copyright law. The natural market for "intellectual goods" like music, movies, and TV is very weak (which is why copyright was created in the first place). Cable companies and centralized distributors are the natural conclusion of our copyright mechanisms. Online video has al…

I like this approach, not shying away from reexamining the fundamental problem. What do you define as a "weak market"?

Seeing as that's the problem, affording agents in the space more or better control to try and strengthen the market could be an approach - so I want to understand where/what the current weaknesses are.

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

#754

Post by nebabyte »

tspike wrote: post #116
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.

Thanks to the Disney Vault, you can't even buy most of the movies if you want to. I wouldn't expect that to change much.

Which is why the internet in its current form is such a wonderful thing that needs to be protected as part of the common heritage of mankind. It's the closest thing we'll ever get to a living memory.

In a capitalist system piracy is seen as "illegal", but in a culture with better ways to support and fund their arts it'd be the pinnacle of immutability and access. Instead of wasting all this energy figuring out how to charge through the nose for huge undertakings after they are created to recoup costs and make future efforts seem lucrative and a "worthwhile investment" we could just create and fund what we want to see and have it be accessible to everyone (almost like a public good? Definitely an artifact of a nation's culture and works) and go along with information flow rather than stifle it.

Or maybe capitalism will grind on, and in 200 years Disney will still be kicking their Mickey copyright can down the road and rebranding their 'vault' the Disney Time Machine, making the biggest lens through cultural history toy glasses with mouse ears on them. shudders

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

#755

Post by nebabyte »

freehunter wrote: post #344
wfunction wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are children into live-action Disney films? That seems to be the vast majority of their catalog, not animations.

Define "children". Do 10 year olds like Pirate of the Caribbean? Yes. Do 12 year olds like Hook? Also yes.

I am assuming a catalog "filled" with live action Disney films would mostly have those one-off concept movies they created for their channel than pages upon pages of movies standing peer to Pirates of the Carribean.

Still interesting enough to kids but let's not pretend like it's not padding; those movies were often very formulaic, "relatable kid with a weird life or circumstances goes on a journey" - not really worth the price tag for a subscription.

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

#756

Post by throwaway91111 »

macspoofing wrote: post #584
throwaway91111 wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not even sure i could watch $50/month of streaming content. I can barely keep up with HBO and Netflix pumping out content on a weekly basis. I could see a family buying a plethora of bundles, but I strongly suspect it will continue to be cheaper than the equivalent cable package. I can't speak at all for sports; i imagine that alone could be hundreds a month to watch a local game.

>I could see a family buying a plethora of bundles, but I strongly suspect it will continue to be cheaper than the equivalent cable package. You may be right but I just don't think the industry can go from taking in $50-100/mo to $10/mo - they will figure out a way. And people didn't mind paying that amount. What people disliked was the forced bundles and less flexibility compared to what pirating gave you. >I can't…

I thought NBA access gave you everything BUT your local team?

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

#757

Post by dorfsmay »

coldtea wrote: post #616
dorfsmay wrote: post #587

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't even care about flat rate, charge me a couple dollars (and more if it was just out in the cinema, I don't want to go to a room full of stranger to watch a movie) per movie/show but. I'm even OK to have to use 3 different providers, but not being able to watch a movie because there is no agreement for the country I'm in is ridiculous.

> I don't want to go to a room full of stranger to watch a movie Sharing a cultural artifact with others outside a small social bubble is one of the great enjoyments of going to the cinema.

Ah! Sounds like a great idea, a cinema followed by some cocktail party for people to talk about the movie. I'd go to that sort of event.

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

#758

Post by jalaziz »

datasage wrote: post #426
jalaziz wrote: post #416

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…

They are pushing forward with this by purchasing a controlling stake in BAMTech, which is the streaming tech company behind HBO Now, MLB and others.

I saw that and I can't speak for HBO Now, but my experience with WatchESPN (which apparently also streams through BAMTech) has been abysmal. This may be incredibly naive of me, but I'd much rather have an independent tech powerhouse like Netflix focused on content delivery.

In my experience, traditional media companies stifle innovation instead of encourage it. It was never easy to work with them and they held us back. The whole industry is a mess. I can't imagine Disney buying a controlling stake in BAMTech will make things better.

That being said, Disney is better with technology than most other media companies. Of course, I could be completely off-base here. It's just my opinion.

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

#759

Post by fweespeech »

julianz wrote: post #447
px1999 wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People will definitely turn to piracy if it becomes too difficult/fragmented to watch the content they want to watch. As a result, for these services to be successful, we'll probably see some renewed fighting against piracy and some work toward increasing regulation on the internet. Unfortunately, the political climate is probably pretty good in the US right now for Disney and other big content creators to start push…

Or just not watch. It's just TV. If it's too hard I'll go and do something else and not even miss it. That doesn't help the content creators long term if I'm no longer even interested in their product.

Tbh, mindless entertainment where I shut my brain off is critical to staying chill for me.

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

#760

Post by coldtea »

dorfsmay wrote: post #757
coldtea wrote: post #616

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't want to go to a room full of stranger to watch a movie Sharing a cultural artifact with others outside a small social bubble is one of the great enjoyments of going to the cinema.

Ah! Sounds like a great idea, a cinema followed by some cocktail party for people to talk about the movie. I'd go to that sort of event.

What you describe has also been going on for nearly a century, at least in Europe: movie (and ordinary) theaters with a foyer (anteroom?) were people drink, smoke (in the past, but also now in some countries) and socialize before the movie starts and during the intermission (a short 10-15 minute break splitting the movie in two parts customary in some countries so you can piss in peace, have a drink or a smoke back in the day, and restock on popcorn without missing anything).

And that's for regular movie screenings -- there are also all kinds of organized screenings, where people get to talk and discuss the movie afterwards, especially for art films and such.

But already being in an audience while the movie plays, and being aware of people's reactions etc. is a shared experience (and it had been alluded as such by tons of filmmakers).

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