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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

#371

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…

There is a lot more to it than the monthly rate. There are also those terms of service.

To give you an example of what I mean: Netflix lets me subscribe and unsubscribe at whim. If they looked at my profile, they would also understand that changing that would result im my abandoing them altogether. I watch a low volume for a while, my viewing drops off for a while, then I unsubscribe for a while. Keeping track of the terms that allow me to do this is easy because it is one company. Now imagine that there were multiple companies that I subscribed to. Keeping track of those terms of service would change from an inconvenience to a pain. Seeming as most of them are traditional media companies, I also have far less trust in them. Adding 'activation fees', 'deactivation fees', and 'annual contracts' is in their blood. My apologies for the paranoia, but I have dealt with unilaterally changing agreements before.

My response to them would be: thanks but no thanks. Their services/content are not important enough for me to deal with the headache of entering into an agreement with each studio.

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

#372
The only thing I really see working for customers is a la carte for individual shows - say 0.50 for a kids cartoon up to $5 for a new release blockbuster.

Subscription is an annoying mess. Netflix movie selection is so bad now that I don't really expect them to have what I want. Kids shows that used to be on Netflix are no longer there.

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

#373
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.

The big Media companies want it to work like cable because they think their "premium content" will get people to pay more. In reality, they are likely to trigger a backlash that increases piracy instead.

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 pushing for these.

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

#374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No parent will pay $10-$20 month That's literally what my family used to pay in VHS rentals. One new release and one weekly movie, three or four times a month.

There was a whole industry for production of the cassettes, warehousing, distribution, retail space, service personnel which all cost a pretty packet. The cost now of putting the post-edit file on a server with a web payment has gotta be virtually zero. Any schmuck can serve a torrent to the world for the price of an internet connection -- sure, that's the baseline, and it relies on others paying the (small) real cos…

CDN costs of serving HD movies at scale aren't trivial.

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

#375

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…

With HBO I simply do one month subs when a season will complete during it so I can get the whole season in. Once a site passes the $10 mark I quickly lose interest and then I start determining how I can maximize my sub time. Now what will be interesting is seeing which studios cannot float their own streaming service and combine either with another studio or group of them under an all inclusive banner. I figure we wi…

I will never pay for YouTube Red. When an unskippable ad starts playing, I just look away. Most of the time, I realize that I'm wasting time watching idiotic YouTube content, and I quit the app. In this, they're actually lessening my addiction to their platform in that they're giving me a break to consider if I should keep watching or not.

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

#376
post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Netflix already doesn't have that big of a library, and it's been steadily shrinking. But if it comes down to it, i'm willing to pay for $10/mo to netflix purely for their original content. I'd also pay for HBO Now if they would let me (I'm in canada). I don't think there's any other company putting out enough quality first-party content that i'd be willing to pay a monthly fee for their service. maybe a couple bucks…

Relative to every other steaming service they have a huge library, I'm not sure what you mean.

relative to their immediate competitors, yes they have a fairly big library. but in absolute terms, the chances that a random movie i want to watch is available on netflix is already pretty low. losing the disney catalogue isn't going to significantly change that.

my favourite movie piracy website claims to have 32 times as many movies as US netflix does.

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

#377
post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The scale adds up. Cost of entry can be the price paid instead of large monthly subscriptions or higher prices per individual title.

Sure, we've had access to distributed internet for the whole life of the network and people have chosen over and over to use centralized, convenient systems. That's not going to change for TV.

Well, it already happened as I said, except for pirated content.

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

#378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, but I've seen 250+gb torrents with disney content, although I'd never dare to partake.

225 gig of that is windows malware.

anyone using microsoft or apple operating systems deserves to be infected anyway. maybe that's a bit harsh.

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

#379

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…

Maybe they'll have Disney exclusive content and a variety of non-exclusive content licensed from others. Like the current Netflix model.

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

#380

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 keep the Netflix DVD service, which lets me watch whatever I want (with a year lag).
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