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Disney, Warner, Comcast, and Paramount are contemplating cuts, possible mergers

arstechnica.com

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Re: Disney, Warner, Comcast, and Paramount are contemplating cuts, possible mergers

#31

Post by batch12 »

londons_explore wrote: post #11
zpeti wrote: post #7

Is it just me or has the quality of streaming content gone massively downhill? We are in the era of the McDonald’s of streaming. Everything is low quality mass market crap. At this point I’m only watching pre 2016 content or foreign stuff. It’s just so bad. And this is the stuff writers went striking over. I mean I’m not surprised they are threatened by AI, it’s not hard to copy American films and tv at this point. I…

I have to wonder why consumers so desire new content. Old films and TV shows have much the same entertainment value, and are vastly cheaper to stick through some AI to turn to HD and strip out the no-longer-politically-acceptable jokes. There is also a wealth of content from other countries and languages, which could be translated with a little AI assistance to do lip sync etc. With far more content than anyone could…

> and strip out the no-longer-politically-acceptable jokes

Sounds like clearplay and vidangel have a new target consumer base and media pool.

Re: Disney, Warner, Comcast, and Paramount are contemplating cuts, possible mergers

#32

Post by s0l1dsnak3123 »

gcgbcfy wrote: post #24
s0l1dsnak3123 wrote: post #15

The answer to this nonsense is quite clear to me: we need to build a federated media platform instead of building silos that create negative outcomes for the customer and perverse incentives for the distributors and producers. We need to homogonise the pricing just like cable bundles do, but without locking the customer into products they don't care about. Spotify, while having many issues of their own, have more or…

[flagged]

Surely the free-market fundamentalist position would be to let it crash :)

Re: Disney, Warner, Comcast, and Paramount are contemplating cuts, possible mergers

#33

Post by 7thaccount »

MrBuddyCasino wrote: post #8

It wasn’t all for naught, some hidden pearls came out of the low interest orgy thad made everyone and their dog open a streaming service. For instance, AMC+‘s „The North Water“ or Starzplay’s (yes, really) „Counterpart“. Any more recommendations?

I think we only got new Trek due to Paramount trying to sell Paramount Plus.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is terrific and has the spirit of the original series.

Star Trek: Lower Decks is also amazing in a very different way. It's like the writers made an adult cartoon show for all the super fans that references every meme, while still being very endearing and true to trek.

Star Trek: Picard, is also supposedly really good, but I have only seen one episode so far.

Re: Disney, Warner, Comcast, and Paramount are contemplating cuts, possible mergers

#34

Post by lftl »

apwell23 wrote: post #6
morsch wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which stock? This isn't about Netflix, but its rivals. Kind of a garden path headline.

> Disney, Warner, Comcast and Paramount warner is up 22% this year. comcast 26%

S&P is up 25% this year.

Re: Disney, Warner, Comcast, and Paramount are contemplating cuts, possible mergers

#35

Post by mindcrime »

Most of these companies should never have entered the streaming business to begin with. Approximately nobody wants to be in a position of needing to subscribe to 17 different services to see a broad swathe of general purpose content. OK, sure, if you have something really niche then maybe it makes sense to run as a separate service. But for most players, I can't help but think they be better off licensing their content to Netflix or Prime and not trying to be a separate platform.

Re: Disney, Warner, Comcast, and Paramount are contemplating cuts, possible mergers

#37

Post by graphe »

tom_walters wrote: post #29

I think this primarily comes down to a fundamental misunderstanding of where the value in streaming services lies from the perspective of old world media giants. The majority of people who buy streaming, I suspect, are interested mainly in the conveyor belt of diverse and engaging content. Sure I whack an episode of Rick and Morty on via Netflix once a month, but 90% of viewing is of new serialized content. Disney na…

> Disney naively thought they could just serve up old classics while wringing the life out of Marvel and Star Wars IP and people would happily continue to pay.

Wringing the life is a pretty mean way to put it. They tried to use the IP to make money. Their movies and shows sound like propaganda with Twitter quips and they aren't good. Marvel and star wars peaked under Disney the same way that Apple peaked from Tim Cook in terms of profit, only apple products are still good.

Re: Disney, Warner, Comcast, and Paramount are contemplating cuts, possible mergers

#38

Post by sethd »

tom_walters wrote: post #29

I think this primarily comes down to a fundamental misunderstanding of where the value in streaming services lies from the perspective of old world media giants. The majority of people who buy streaming, I suspect, are interested mainly in the conveyor belt of diverse and engaging content. Sure I whack an episode of Rick and Morty on via Netflix once a month, but 90% of viewing is of new serialized content. Disney na…

> and leveraged cross-country content like no old-world provider ever has.

Mixing in a lot of foreign language content to make their library seem larger is a sad joke and one of the main reasons I no longer subscribe to Netflix.

Edit for clarity: I’m fine with foreign language content in general, as long as it’s categorized as such. The problem is how Netflix mixes it in with everything else in a deceptive manor.

I can remember when Blockbuster and video rental stores would put all this in a foreign language section, which was then further broken down by genre.

Re: Disney, Warner, Comcast, and Paramount are contemplating cuts, possible mergers

#40

Post by ken47 »

tom_walters wrote: post #29

I think this primarily comes down to a fundamental misunderstanding of where the value in streaming services lies from the perspective of old world media giants. The majority of people who buy streaming, I suspect, are interested mainly in the conveyor belt of diverse and engaging content. Sure I whack an episode of Rick and Morty on via Netflix once a month, but 90% of viewing is of new serialized content. Disney na…

Do you have any first hand sources of Disney’s thought process and strategy as you’ve summarized them here? Calling Disney naive is bold.
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