Live data from Hacker News

Disney acquires own streaming facilities, will pull Netflix content

thewaltdisneycompany.com

91–100 of 788 posts

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

#91

Wow it's 2017 and they still haven't understood this. Nobody will pay for a Disney service, a HBO service, a Netflix Originals service, an Amazon Originals service, .. Not because people can't afford it, Americans happily paid $120 for cable, but simply because the balkanization throws convenience out of the window and nobody wants to deal with that .

People absolutely are paying for separate services. There's a limit to how many, but many, many people are paying for Netflix + HBO, or Amazon + HBO, because they believe HBO delivers value for the money. In contrast, I suspect very few people are likely to sign up for the CBS service, Star Trek or not, because I don't think many people believe CBS delivers value for the money. Disney is banking on people believing t…

I'm interested to see what will happen to HBO Now subscriptions after next summer. Will it be sticky enough?

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

#92
Some kind of surprising comments in this thread. I think many people (obviously not everyone here judging by what I'm reading) would happily pay for a Disney-only service, maybe upwards of $20-$30 per month. Why? Its the mecca for family entertainment. They have Pixar, Disney Animation, Star Wars and Marvel, plus all of their Disney television content from years past. Its a quality brand people trust. Much different than Warner Bros, Paramount, Universal or any of the other major studios. Netflix and Amazon are still establishing their video content brands and I know they don't come close to Disney's reputation for family content.

Its a very logical move from my viewpoint (I don't even have a family). If other studios follow suit they will likely perish from lack of brand loyalty and/or poor execution.

I hear everyone on the desire for convergence. But we don't want convergence without competition. The problem with a Spotify model for video content is that if Netflix becomes the de facto video provider and Amazon or some other provider can't capture a sizable portion of the market, then we don't have room for other competitors.

The current model for movie theaters is one born out of anti-trust lawsuits. Its not a perfect model, but it allows for some competition on things beyond just the movie you are watching. Theaters compete on ticket prices, food options, seating and convenience (by offering multiple films). This would be a suitable model for convergence, but unfortunately it also means legislation to get providers there. And does it apply to the numerous self-starts on youtube or elsewhere? I'm digressing, but my point is that I'd rather not have just one service to rule them all.

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

#93
People forget that Disney owns a lot of must-see content:

For example, here is the list of top grossing movies of 2016 http://www.imdb.com/list/ls074920894/

Disney had the following films

1. Captain America: Civil War

2. Rogue One

3. Finding Dory

4. Zootopia

5. The Jungle Book

11. Doctor Strange

12. Moana

19. Alice Through the Looking Glass

For 2017 so far (http://www.the-numbers.com/box-office-records/domestic/all-m...)

Disney has

1. Beauty and the Beast

3. Guardians of the Galaxy V2

11. Pirates of the Caribbean

13. Cars 3

They own the Marvel franchise, the Star Wars, as well as some of the most loved children's movies in history. They also have a ton of children's TV programs.

If Disney really had a subscription service with all their movies and TV shows, I would choose them over Netflix.

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

#94
Regarding ESPN, its first party content (not live sports broadcasts) was high quality, delivering both journalism and personality based entertainment to its audience. That quality has dramatically decreased in the last 10-15 years.

TV broadcasts necessitate a one size fits all content strategy where you strike a balance between the degree of content fit with individual users, with the size of the audience you can appeal to. Streaming services have turned things on its head, where stronger niche appeal with inherently smaller audience sizes is winning the day. ESPN needs to address this audience targeting problem if it's going to be successful in the non-live-event segment of sports entertainment.

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

#95
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm happy to pay extra for content from Disney or HBO, but I just want a consistent user experience. I was a single app that will let me access all of this content.

Interestingly HBO just did this: They put HGO Go into Hulu. $15/month is still a lot though.

Maybe, but they put out good content that I personally think is worth the price of admission.

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

#96
post #73

Wow it's 2017 and they still haven't understood this. Nobody will pay for a Disney service, a HBO service, a Netflix Originals service, an Amazon Originals service, .. Not because people can't afford it, Americans happily paid $120 for cable, but simply because the balkanization throws convenience out of the window and nobody wants to deal with that .

My thoughts on best strategies given this ongoing fragmentation: 1) Subscribe to only one or two services at a time. Binge the stuff you missed while you weren't subscribed, then drop it and switch. Works if you don't care about discussing stuff with people as it airs. Less good if many of the services penalize short-term subscriptions. 2) Abandon digital-delivery TV/Movies. Use the friggin' library, and spend what y…

#1 is my current method of dealing with all the content out there. I keep a list of movies/shows on each platform that I'm interested in watching. When the size of the list grows to a critical mass for a given platform, I'll subscribe for a month or two and binge them all.

I wonder if companies like HBO plan for this type of usage and schedule their shows to start and end at times that would necessitate paying for an extra month of service.

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

#97
post #83

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…

> I'm already annoyed when I have to go from Netflix to Amazon to find a movie/show I want to see but can't remember where it is. This problem was solved for me by Roku search on my roku device. It still is something I'd rather not need to do, but the search interface is just as good as the dedicated ones for amazon or netflix and shows you the results across all services.

yup. same for me. Having a search that centralizes all subscriptions you currently have really makes it easy to access that content. I remember the Wii U was supposed to have something similar, it never worked for me. The roku search on the other hand, works just fine. Even the voice search is not that bad.

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

#98
post #92

Some kind of surprising comments in this thread. I think many people (obviously not everyone here judging by what I'm reading) would happily pay for a Disney-only service, maybe upwards of $20-$30 per month. Why? Its the mecca for family entertainment. They have Pixar, Disney Animation, Star Wars and Marvel, plus all of their Disney television content from years past. Its a quality brand people trust. Much different…

I agree with this. Most families in the western world would pay upwards of $30 to be able to show Disneys back catalog to their kids. Unlimited nostalgia. But I hope they don't pull a typical Disney and portion out their content by arbitrary restrictions. Families will pay either way regardless though.

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

#99
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We asked for a la carte TV pricing. I think this is what it looks like. I'll probably pay for a few channels and forget the rest.

Or pay for a channel for a month or two, then drop it.

Pretty much what I would do. Netflix has such a large catalog, that I don't bother cancelling during periods when I'm not even using the service. If the content I'm interested in is spread through various services, I'll simply sign up, watch what I wanted to watch, then cancel. One month's subscription is enough for me to catch up on a season's worth of some series I like.

This however creates the incentive for providers to start enforcing long term contracts for the regular price, or a much higher price for a monthly plan, in which case DVDs will be relevant again for me.

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

#100

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…

>If every studio thinks I'm going to pay them $10+ a month to stream their content, they are going to be very mistaken

One of the biggest misconceptions about the post-tv-cable world is that people actually thought they could cut their TV bill from $50-$100/mo to $10/mo.

Post reply on HN