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

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131–140 of 330 posts

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

#131
TikTok, YouTube and maybe Netflix are changing/have changed the media landscape. Soon Netflix is going to have all the big studios content again yet for certain demographics they arent using the other streamers & Netflix less n less as YouTube and TikTok are free. They also offer shorter forms of content that prompt sharing and discussions between friends (social). Content consumption habits are and have changed!

Personally I watch YouTube 90 percent of the time (short to long form content) as its algorithm is the best .. it continues to feed me exactly what I'd like to watch day in/day out. Other percentage TikTok (rather Facebook reels for myself) and some HBO max. I canceled all the others I subscribed to in 2023(Disney, Hulu, peacock, etc) and never even bothered using friends account for Paramount.

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

#132
I dropped cable in 2007, and streaming last year. If streaming is no longer a value and ad free then I don't have a need for it. I'm FAST and buy what I want on sale through a single ecosystem. The whole industry was hotshotted and its going to take a while before they game the CBAs. But honestly think that my time is better spent doing other things. Perhaps my money will be more appreciated in those areas. If I start now I still probably won't get to read every book I've ever wanted to read.

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

#133
post #55
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 c…

Why is it a problem for you? Don't like reading subs when doing stuff in the background? It's my main reason I don't like foreign, I'm either reading or watching.

I don’t like reading subtitles period (totally distracts from actually watching the movie for me) and I don’t like dubs either as the words not lining up annoys me.

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

#134
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve definitely noticed that there seems to be ~5 people who do all the dubs on Netflix. For instance there’s obviously one guy who does all the main character voices, one guy who does all of the black guy voices, etc

Yeah, it's deeply frustrating. I don't want to read subtitles so I like dubs. But compare it to American animated series (eg The Simpsons, Family Guy, South Park, etc) where voice acting is taken seriously as acting, which it is. Having the right voice actor matters. But for dubs it seems like they have like 6 people on staff whose job it is to do the dubs and they're just bad at it. It's clear it's not taken serious…

If they have just 6 people who do all the dubs, those people aren't bad at it.

But they will be good at it not in the way you like, but the way producers like - do everything acceptably in one take etc.

Dubbing is a pretty extreme industry, from what I've heard. I used to know someone who had contracts to dub Disney stuff - they had ridiculous (and possibly illegal) contracts with huge penalties for quitting, since Daisy Duck better not start sounding different...

I have also witnessed Norwegian children's TV "dubbed" by a broken nynorsk TTS engine.

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

#135
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Shocks me that steaming failed to implement that feature. Years ago, broadcast TV would air edited versions and the cost of that editing must be higher than a GUI feature to play one set of scenes instead of the full movie.

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

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Wringing the life is a pretty mean way to put it. Corporations don't have feelings. It is okay to be mean to multi billion dollar corporations.

Corporations are made up of people and groups of people do very much have feelings.

Corporations are people when it benefits them, and are mindless machines when it benefits them.

Right now they're people because they're being criticized. When they do massive layoffs they're just a business doing business things. When it comes to advertising they're people with free speech rights, but when they're committing wage theft they're just businesses and no one goes to jail. When they hire lobbyists it's their right as people, but when they violate laws meant to keep our environment safe they're just companies again and are hit with a small fine.

It's amazingly convenient (for the corporations at least) that they are only people when it benefits them but can drop that title easily when it makes them more money and shields those people from consequences.

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

#137

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…

> 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.

> Meanwhile Netflix has built some of the most sophisticated production tooling in the world, and leveraged cross-country content like no old-world provider ever has.

If it was so fundamental and obvious like you state wouldn't you have been super rich by now by buying netflix stock when it crashed in 2022. Maybe you are ?

Dominant narrative back then was that netflix is nothing specail. Building a stream app is a commodity that anyone can build and the old-world providers have content that people want to watch.

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

#138
post #37

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 Coo…

> Wringing the life is a pretty mean way to put it. They tried to use the IP to make money.

Mean or not, I'd say it's also accurate. They tried to use the IP to make money... by wringing the life out of it. There are so many Marvel/Star Wars movies/tv shows now you need a freaking spreadsheet to keep track.

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

#139

We should not allow distribution of media and software to be a cornerstone of society. If we passed some regulation to force it to be leased to wanting distributors at equal cost we could kill exclusivity and the middle man margins and just get on with it with a nice, basically free option like SFlix.

we had that once it was called television

honestly it was pretty bad, and completely controlled by media organizations who used it to gaslight the poplace as badly as tiktok does today

i think there's both every reason and right to maintain private platforms even if its annoying to consumers, being forced to be lumped in with others comes with regulations that eventually turn into tyranny

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

#140
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 c…

I’m totally with you. I still use almost exclusively Netflix but have to spend a lot more time finding content as it even seems they go out of their way to hide the fact it’s a dub in the trailers. I do a lot of backing out once I realize it’s dubbed.

Thank you, this is exactly what I was referring to. I forgot about the deceptive trailers that attempt to hide the fact it’s dubbed. There’s definitely a deliberate attempt to trick viewers here.

I think the only easy way to tell without watching is by looking at the names of the actors. If they are look like they are from a particular language/region, then it’s usually a sign it’s dubbed.

I was starting to wonder if I was alone with this opinion or if there is just a some Netflix employees here trying to gaslight me. :)

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