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Disney is leaving Netflix and doing their own streaming

JeffMackwood said:
And then they wonder why their stuff gets torrented!

When one minute you have the paid right to access something and the next you don't? Torrent what they took away. The self-guilt bar gets set pretty low in cases like that.
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To be clear - this deal appears to only apply to future streaming, not current. They are not canceling licensing of current streams. You can also still buy stuff, like on Amazon where you can rent or buy a streamed movie which isn't free on their Prime platform. I can see Netflix eventually getting into that game if this sort of crap continues.

I spoke with a guy at one of the huge content studios as he was struggling with this issue. He really wanted to see a world where the studio blends the utility model with the all you can eat model. Basically, his idea looked like this: 1) Consumer signs up for a streaming service for a very small monthly fee (like $2) in order to have access to the catalog. 2) Consumer is charged a reasonable fee ($1 to $5 depending on content) for each program streamed, 3) One the consumer hits a peak monthly unlimited monthly rate ($12 to $17 a month) the raising bill is frozen. This way you only pay for what you use (other than the marginal monthly access fee which ensures your account info is up to date), but you will never pay more than a regular unlimited subscription.

I like this model, and wish it was offered for HBO which has just a couple of shows I want to watch.
 
JeffMackwood said:
And then they wonder why their stuff gets torrented!

When one minute you have the paid right to access something and the next you don't? Torrent what they took away. The self-guilt bar gets set pretty low in cases like that.
Click to expand...

I buy pretty much every new release movie that interests me and use a combination of disc-to-digital, bargain bin sales and disc ripping from my library to cover most of the rest. Less than 10% of my movies are of debatable provenance and most of that stuff is 30-80 years old. Roughly 70% of my local music library was sourced from physical discs, iTunes, Amazon and Google. I also subscribe two both Amazon Music and Google Play Music, so I am more than covered. TV is a little unconventional. I subscribe to YouTube Red, ad-free Hulu, Amazon, Netflix and DramaFever. I also buy UV or Vudu licenses for some of the shows I follow and I have an OTA DVR. That means that I ultimately end up paying for most-to-all of the content I consume. Between subscription services and direct purchases, my wife and I spend about $2000 per year on content. Over the years, we've spent roughly $30,000 on purchased content.

I explain this to provide proper context when I say that I absolutely refuse to chase content across a million streaming services. This is why 75% of my direct TV consumption is by other means. It is not about the money. In addition to the $60/month I spend on streaming services, I have to spend another $25/month on other services and had to invest several thousand dollars in hardware and software to make it all work. The point of the whole thing is being able to consolidate the content that I care about into a single, simple interface where I can watch it without having to worry about when it will disappear. It is great to just turn it on and see the next/latest episode of every show I am currently watching right there in the On Deck queue. The problem with a million streaming services is that you forget what shows you were watching where don't necessarily know when they will return for a new season. This requires a lot of checking in a bunch of places and becomes a huge pain. With my system, they just pop up in Recently added when they return. Give me a service that works like that.
 
I also refuse to chase content. I've been paring down my media spending and decided that I'll subscribe to one or two services (currently a mid level U-verse tier and Netflix) and If it's not available there... I don't need it.

I find the TV is on less and music is playing more often.
 
I do wonder how big the catalog will be on this service. On a couple Disney cruise ships (Dream and Fantasy) they have an on demand service on the in-room TV where you can watch a very wide array of Disney movies.

If they pull the "in the vault, out of the vault" crap then I don't think it will fly. If they keep just about their entire catalog ready to go, yeah, I might well shell out for it if I could watch a classic live action, the next night a recent animated, and the one after that a Marvel flick.
 
Since UltraViolet licenses are directly with the studios, wouldn't it stand to reason that the studios would simply convert them?
 
I did some checking. If I link both my Movies Anywhere and UltraViolet accounts to Vudu, all of my eligible UV titles will automatically port over to MA. I expect that the other studios will come on-board eventually, making all of my titles available on all platforms. The sharing capabilities are not as generous as UltraViolet's, but should be adequate to ensure that my children can retain access to my library when they leave the nest. I am tend to maintain backup copies of the movies I own on my local storage, which mitigates some of the issues.
 
I am excited, because this was the only thing keeping me from embracing the Amazon FireTV platform. Once all of my movies port, I may switch over simply because of the Alexa integration, unified program guide and Arlo camera integration.
 
Analysts and reporting are all up in arms about Disney's profits from TV licensing revenue being way down in 2017 and what used to be the majority profit generating business unit at 58% of profits now accounts for less than 46% of Disney's profit. Much of this loss is from ESPN licensing being WAY down.

So, when they announce their earnings on Thursday, analysts anticipate the CEO spending considerable time discussing Disney's streaming plans to reverse the trend in their TV unit. This will likely include details on the ESPN streaming service and their entertainment streaming service we already know will launch in 2018. We also know about their non-renewal of rights to Disney content and refusal to license future content to current streaming services, such as Netflix and Amazon (the news that started this thread).

Maybe they will also announce their current plans on pricing and bundling - such as Amazon's "channels" service.

I find the future both exciting as content providers find new and innovative ways to get more content into my home through means I find easy and appealing, but also painful as I discover the content I desire requires more and more separate subscriptions leading to a content bill that exceeds my old cable bill costs. So, it is a love / hate sort of thing.
 
Flint said:
I find the future both exciting as content providers find new and innovative ways to get more content into my home through means I find easy and appealing, but also painful as I discover the content I desire requires more and more separate subscriptions leading to a content bill that exceeds my old cable bill costs. So, it is a love / hate sort of thing.
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That pretty much sums up my feelings.
 
Now Disney has let it be known they are developing a live action Star Wars TV series to be exclusive to their streaming service.

Additionally, they gave near free reign to a director for a new Star Wars movie trilogy.
 
In addition to a new Star Wars show, additional shows being developed solely for Disney's streaming service include new content based on their successful franchises Monsters Inc., Marvel, and High School Musical.

Iger, Disney's CEO, said the streaming service will cost "substantially less than Netflix".
 
Flint said:
In addition to a new Star Wars show, additional shows being developed solely for Disney's streaming service include new content based on their successful franchises Monsters Inc., Marvel, and High School Musical.

Iger, Disney's CEO, said the streaming service will cost "substantially less than Netflix".
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I might bite.
 
Flint said:
In addition to a new Star Wars show, additional shows being developed solely for Disney's streaming service include new content based on their successful franchises Monsters Inc., Marvel, and High School Musical.

Iger, Disney's CEO, said the streaming service will cost "substantially less than Netflix".
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I'd bite at a price of less than Netflix. ESPECIALLY if they have all their old catalog movies available.
 
I’ve not been following ... is this to include all of Disney’s assets including Marvel, Lucasfilm and Touchstone?
 
Towen7 said:
I’ve not been following ... is this to include all of Disney’s assets including Marvel, Lucasfilm and Touchstone?
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They aren't going to pull out of current licensing deals, so anything Netflix/Hulu/Amazon/etc. has exclusivity to will not be on the Disney service until those deals expire. But, it was big news a few months ago that Netflix, et. al., were not getting rights to shows in production as expected.
 
I'd also point out that Disney is damned serious about the streaming service. They language used during the earnings call where all this new information is coming from was strongly suggesting that viewership would have a slow uptick, probably slower than the rest of the industry, but that the future of Disney was on the line and they were committed to making this the primary delivery channel for their future TV programming. They are all in - much like CBS is all in with their CBS All Access service which already has three dedicated shows and more on the way.
 
Flint said:
I'd also point out that Disney is damned serious about the streaming service.
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The CEO of AT&T was interviewed by the NYT’s DealBook yesterday and he mentioned Disney’s “aggressive” direct to consumer efforts. You guys probably haven’t heard Randall Stephenson speak but he’s extremely good at avoiding hyperbole so when he says Disney is being “aggressive” he means that they are being EXTREMELY AGGRESSIVE. He’s also in a position to have a little more information than most analysts considering AT&Ts ongoing work to acquire Time Warner and become a player in the content and distribution of online video.
 
Disney is acquiring Fox Studios. It has already been stated that the main goal of the acquisition is to focus on content for the Disney streaming service. Now rumors are flowing that Disney will dramatically reduce the size and output of Fox Studios which will result in fewer theatrical releases, potentially none.

It appears to me that Disney isn't going to experiment with streaming when they launch. I believe they will come out with all barrels firing with a massive launch with so much desirable exclusive content that you'd be a fool not to sign up.
 
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