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Disney acquires own streaming facilities, will pull Netflix content

thewaltdisneycompany.com

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

#731

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually wasn't aware, thanks. I've been on GPM for years, but it might be time to get a refreshed view of the competition as well.

I was on Google Play Music from the beginning, and only left when they cancelled my early access plan without asking me and refused to reinstate it. Apple Music has leapfrogged them in every way, and Google Music has only regressed since launch, especially in terms of UX. I did really like Google Play Music, and allowing the local library sync as a free draw was a really smart move. But the sour taste they left in my…

I keep hearing that there may be problems with Apple Music, such as replacing local files. Having quite a lot of content which is ripped from vinyl I'm hesitant to try it. Have you had any difficulties with it?

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

#732
post #516

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also needs to be easier to buy it than steal it and not have unskippable adverts or lectures on piracy for a lot of things, stealing is both easier and better

If you live in the US, the act of buying a movie and watching it immediately (without trailers or adverts) is about as simple as you can get. iTunes, Xbox Store, YouTube/Google Play, etc. all offer what are essentially one-click purchases and/or rentals, and the most you get is an interstitial menu defaulted to "play" (with other options for special features and jump to chapter).

Except those are actually long-term rentals.

What if Google or Apple or Microsoft, for whatever reason, decide to pull the plus on their service?

Now you paid for nothing and don't own whichever movie you "bought" anymore.

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

#733
Its legal to rent a DVD, what if you could play the physical DVD and broadcast it to whoever has rented it? Like redbox but the DVD player is in the cloud somewhere and you are mirroring the stream at your house? I've been wondering if that's legal and if Netflix could do something like that with their DVD collection

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

#734

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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.

Well sending a small parcel in the post costs me >£3 GBP, what's the cost of 9GB of CDN. Bet it's trivial in comparison.

http://www.cdncalc.com/ says it's about 34p. Suggesting it's not trivial, but ~10% of the prior cost.

Not a solid analysis but indicative IMO. Bet someone else has done all the [other] costings and probably quite rigorously?

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

#735
post #697

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Film studios are constrained by labyrinthine contracts between studios, distributors, actors, and unions. In cases where contracts are missing, any of the above parties can sue. Even more confusingly rights for IP might have been transferred and sold many times leading to questions about who actually owns a film or franchise. Distribution rights, production rights are separate. Actors may have been promised a cut of…

That doesn't explain why a 20 year old movie will pop up on a streaming service for a few months then be unavailable again. Clearly they can sort these issues out. The content companies are stuck in a model of artificial scarcity. For myself, when I get the itch to watch an old movie and I can't immediately find it on the Netflix or Amazon prime video I don't go try to find some other streaming service or pay for a o…

Well the other side of the equation is what the new distributors (Netflix, Amazon, etc.) are willing to pay to stream a given property. If a property keeps jumping from service to service and in and out of availability I would guess it has more to do with a mismatch between the perceived value of the property and what the streaming services are willing to pay for it.

Artificial scarcity is a thing I can't argue with you there, Disney has been doing it for years with drip-style "anniversary" releases of their properties on media. I would fully expect them to do the same with their streaming content.

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

#736
post #658

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So the only alternative to paying for something you don't own is to steal it and pretend that you're somehow justified because you don't agree with the way the law is written? In any other industry market forces would be in effect forcing business to either compete or go under. Could you expound on this a bit? Disney owns the rights to distribute the products that it has spent billions of dollars to create and you ta…

I am a music composer and audio engineer. My music is pretty niche. If someone were to ask me if I'd rather that they buy my music or 'steal' it from a torrent site that offers a 100% pure FLAC rip, I'd tell them the latter. Because the torrent site is the only one which has respect for my hard work, and has the users who are passionate and thankful for my work being available to them. Services like Spotify are not d…

I mean no offense, but you aren't Disney. Disney has been actively developing, innovating, and acquiring a huge library of content with proven demand for nearly a century. Clearly their priority is selling and licensing content. It sounds like your priority is getting your music in the hands of people who appreciate it in the best format possible. That's very respectable, but that's not how most companies operate.

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

#737
Separate from the "cable2.0" comments... I would say that nurturing/developing the content is harder than the tech side. Not putting down the amazing achievements netflix has made, but if you are trying to show a family a kids movie, it won't matter how the quality is vs. "wow that was a terrible movie". Pixar/LucasFilm/etc. properties that Disney owns are critical, and a streaming/digital footprint is the logical next step.

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

#738
post #606

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I steal your car, you lose your car. If I pirate your film, you may or may not have lost out on a sale. Probably I wasn't willing to pay for your awful SpywareDataHarvesting as a Service content platform so it's debatable whether or not you truly lost anything.

I lost control over my work. How about that? Even if I haven't lost the original, who exactly gave you the permission to watch my work? Do you also sneak into live shows without paying the cover charge? After all a live band doesn't lose money when you sneak into the theater either. And you can argue that you might have never opted to pay the ticket in the first place if you couldn't sneak. So, as long as there's eno…

>Even if I haven't lost the original, who exactly gave you the permission to watch my work?

What if I watch it for free at my friend's house? Do I need your permission?

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

#739
post #695

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If GPM had a Linux client, I would consider switching to it.

https://www.googleplaymusicdesktopplayer.com/ works on linux and there's also an unofficial API https://unofficial-google-music-api.readthedocs.io/en/latest... I make playlists almost daily for work and I use the API to manage them, dedupe, delete old ones, and what not. Super convenient. But the web UX has gone to crap. There was an update a few months ago that really killed its performance and broke the playlist so…

My complaint is that I can't use GPM family with a custom domain, boo.

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

#740

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I love Google Play Music, you can basically upload any kind of personally-acquired (legally or not) music to the service and it will seamlessly and transparently integrate with the platform itself and let you stream them wherever and whenever like any other. They are stricter than Spotify with regional licenses unfortunately. I listen to a lot of Japanese artists that are on Spotify but not on GPM in Euro…

I used to use Google Play Music, and it was very nice. But for anyone who has a reaaaaalllly big library I might suggest something like Ampache ( http://ampache.org/ ). It's totally open source, has a relatively decent web player, allows you to stream your music anywhere, allows you to create accounts for others to have access to your music, can connect with Plex/subsonic to work with other devices/clients. I use DSu…

thanks for sharing this, looks awesome!
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