Ref: https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/8/16115 ... tflix-deal
Ref: https://news.slashdot.org/story/17/08/0 ... ng-service

Disney these days is a lot more than kids movies. They own the Star Wars and Marvel franchises, for instance, and tons of mainstream movies along with their back catalog.

I find the size of the investment and the tech angle to be interesting:

Disney’s streaming service will be built off technology from BAMTech, the MLB-founded video streaming platform. Disney was already a major investor in BAMTech, and today it’s making an even bigger investment — of $1.58 billion — giving it a 75 percent stake in the company. The acquisition still requires regulatory approval.

I also read on Twitter that Wall Street has reacted negatively.

Commenters are saying that we may be getting to the "tipping point" where people are OK with having a small number of paid subscription services but are going to get overwhelmed with subscribing to all these different silos. I agree with that. Others are saying that people might be making an exception for Disney, because they do have a lot of content and parents will do almost anything to keep their kiddies amused except spend more of their own time keeping the kiddies amused. I kind of agree with that. I think Disney has the content, the branding and now the tech to pull it off. On the other hand, Disney has the track record of charging dearly for everything they do.

Another thing being mentioned is that Disney (parent company of ESPN) will set up its own ESPN streaming channels. Not sure how those will overlap with ESPN on cable. It's tricky territory because content providers usually don't offer their streaming rights along with the cable TV rights.

So, going forward, how many subscription services do you think you'll be carrying after Disney leaves Netflix?

For me, I still see Netflix, Amazon Prime and not Disney as paid services. Unpaid stuff I use a lot is YouTube and PBS.

In the future I can picture myself getting some sort of NFL streaming service if the over-the-air content disappears and if it's not too expensive. Time will tell on that. NFL is used to living high off the hog, and it's going to be ugly if/when they have to get used to a different kind of revenue stream.

Revelation wrote:

Commenters are saying that we may be getting to the "tipping point" where people are OK with having a small number of paid subscription services but are going to get overwhelmed with subscribing to all these different silos. I agree with that. Others are saying that people might be making an exception for Disney, because they do have a lot of content and parents will do almost anything to keep their kiddies amused except spend more of their own time keeping the kiddies amused. I kind of agree with that. I think Disney has the content, the branding and now the tech to pull it off. On the other hand, Disney has the track record of charging dearly for everything they do.

I'm having the same feeling, because it is Disney and their vast content they will be able to attract enough people to that they won't lose money on this deal. We are getting to the tipping point of so many subscriptions that people are going to start either not signing up or cancelling them, and this works against Disney because how many people have Netflix because of the Disney content. I would say very slim. For this to work they will also need to release effectively their entire catalog to the site as well. They cannot wait months after DVD release to the site because if I were to buy this it would be mainly to watch the new content without having to go buy the DVD or hit a Redbox

Raventech wrote:

I'm having the same feeling, because it is Disney and their vast content they will be able to attract enough people to that they won't lose money on this deal. We are getting to the tipping point of so many subscriptions that people are going to start either not signing up or cancelling them, and this works against Disney because how many people have Netflix because of the Disney content. I would say very slim. For this to work they will also need to release effectively their entire catalog to the site as well. They cannot wait months after DVD release to the site because if I were to buy this it would be mainly to watch the new content without having to go buy the DVD or hit a Redbox

Tis true, we can talk about all these fancy streaming services as the wave of the future, but there's still a lot of other fallbacks out there. I personally don't watch much of what comes out via Redbox, but every time I walk past the ones at the grocery stores I use there's a bunch of people milling around them trying to decide what if anything to get from the good ol' Redbox.

Hey, there's still one Blockbuster out there -- https://www.buzzfeed.com/farrahpenn/the ... y-too-much

Revelation wrote:

Commenters are saying that we may be getting to the "tipping point" where people are OK with having a small number of paid subscription services but are going to get overwhelmed with subscribing to all these different silos. I agree with that. Others are saying that people might be making an exception for Disney, because they do have a lot of content and parents will do almost anything to keep their kiddies amused except spend more of their own time keeping the kiddies amused. I kind of agree with that. I think Disney has the content, the branding and now the tech to pull it off. On the other hand, Disney has the track record of charging dearly for everything they do..

Simple case of stupidity coming back. What did people do before they could get easy, quick and reasonable priced legal access to TV shows and movies? Depending on how law abiding they where, they just downloaded it, made a copy of a rental DVD or bought a used one. ......

best regards
Thomas

tommy1808 wrote:

Revelation wrote:

Commenters are saying that we may be getting to the "tipping point" where people are OK with having a small number of paid subscription services but are going to get overwhelmed with subscribing to all these different silos. I agree with that. Others are saying that people might be making an exception for Disney, because they do have a lot of content and parents will do almost anything to keep their kiddies amused except spend more of their own time keeping the kiddies amused. I kind of agree with that. I think Disney has the content, the branding and now the tech to pull it off. On the other hand, Disney has the track record of charging dearly for everything they do..

Simple case of stupidity coming back. What did people do before they could get easy, quick and reasonable priced legal access to TV shows and movies? Depending on how law abiding they where, they just downloaded it, made a copy of a rental DVD or bought a used one. ......

best regards
Thomas

I agree, if it all ends up being too expensive people will resort to piracy or just do other things. Streaming devices have been a happy medium ground. The thing is, I think the traditional studios will have a hard time resisting the urge to make as much money as they can which will chase people towards piracy.

One reason iTunes worked so well (at least for Apple and the consumer) was the $0.99 a song price point.

What are the odds that greedy Disney will keep its price point the same as Netflix or lower? Pretty low, says I. Time will tell...

The move will not be immediate, and Disney will take the next year or two to explore their options of bringing this service forward, which means that Disney has not put a lot of thought into the model yet. I think Disney will be folded back into Amazon or Netflix over time.

With this move, I will still have 0 streaming subscriptions. I'm perfectly content with my DirecTV bill.

cjg225 wrote:

With this move, I will still have 0 streaming subscriptions. I'm perfectly content with my DirecTV bill.

how much do they charge? So far my streaming bill is 8 EUR/month for Netflix and Amazon Prime, that i have for shipping ..... my Cellphone provider tosses in unlimited streaming for free.

best regards
Thomas

Revelation wrote:

Another thing being mentioned is that Disney (parent company of ESPN) will set up its own ESPN streaming channels. Not sure how those will overlap with ESPN on cable. It's tricky territory because content providers usually don't offer their streaming rights along with the cable TV rights.

The other question is what happens when ESPN content providers think the same thing as Disney? Disney owns its own properties and they are enormously attractive and profitable because they are so popular, so it can certainly do what they want with them. But MLB and the NFL and NBA may also say "why go through a third party, why not go straight to the consumer and get all the money for ourselves directly?"

In the end a shared, cooperative, bundling system will probably be better and make the companies more money rather than everyone going "consumer direct" but corprations are notoriously selfish and Disney is among the best/toughest at saying "mine".

Tugg

tommy1808 wrote:

how much do they charge? So far my streaming bill is 8 EUR/month for Netflix and Amazon Prime, that i have for shipping ..... my Cellphone provider tosses in unlimited streaming for free.

best regards
Thomas

It's not inexpensive. It's over $100/month. But everything is consolidated into 1 bill (not fragmented bills for different streaming providers) and I get everything that I really want. Maybe I could save money streaming, but it's not worth the extra effort.

I don't see much of a downside for Netflix here. They've slowly been moving away from studio films and more to TV and their own shows and films. Much of their original content is now very good. I don't know how it is elsewhere, but new TVs in the UK nearly all come with the Netflix app built it.

I'll have one subscription. To a VPN provider.

The ongoing fragmentation of the streaming market is not going to help the bottom line of any of these players. Very few people are going to maintain 17 subscriptions and the handful of devices required to use them because of the dark machinations of media companies determining that they will support Roku and Apple TV but not PS4 etc.

Disney may be a big player, but the Free Market™ with its large cohort of self-interested individuals has demonstrated time and again that when people are not given high-quality solutions which are easy to use, they will pirate. Doing so often involves less hassle and may yield better quality to boot. Torrenting a HD copy of something from a known piracy group involves waiting for a download, but once it's done the image quality is great and there is no "buffering" right in the middle of critical scenes.

Same as others, I predicted this from the start and have never subscribed to Netflix or a competitor for this reason.

I can get everything I want in other manners, and I'll let the actors figure out what people really want, something similar to my cinema card, 22€/month for unlimited movies, 3D included.

scbriml wrote:

I don't see much of a downside for Netflix here. They've slowly been moving away from studio films and more to TV and their own shows and films. Much of their original content is now very good. I don't know how it is elsewhere, but new TVs in the UK nearly all come with the Netflix app built it.

There will be a downside. Netflix will loose a competitive edge as for people with kids Disney is a selling point. Fortunately (for me) Disney does this only in the US.

Streaming does have some upsides though. I bought a TV not long ago, and it came with several 'apps' onboard that let me access Amazon Prime (via subscription) and Now TV (via subscription), which is the streaming division of Sky TV. No boxes, just TV On Demand.

I was up until recently also paying my service provider for TV channels via their box, and have cancelled that. When the contract runs out the streaming service Now TV also has an internet access package and I'll shift to that and save even more money. My total phone, fiber broadband and TVOD channels should work out for less than thirty five a month.

LJ wrote:

scbriml wrote:

I don't see much of a downside for Netflix here. They've slowly been moving away from studio films and more to TV and their own shows and films. Much of their original content is now very good. I don't know how it is elsewhere, but new TVs in the UK nearly all come with the Netflix app built it.

There will be a downside. Netflix will loose a competitive edge as for people with kids Disney is a selling point. Fortunately (for me) Disney does this only in the US.

I love Disney (except Zombie high... Bad lessons on contagious disease, but I digress). But I am limiting silos. I have Netflix (restarted recently) and Amazon prime only. I find my HBO fetish is cheaper to buy on Amazon.

There is a limit to what people will pay. I go to sports restaurants for ESPN or a friend's house. I'm ok disconnecting from being a sports fan and with the prices to attend games, I'll teach my kids to play sports.

TV has gone to the far side of pricing. When Netflix losses Disney, I won't even notice. My kids Netflix is one show a week. Then again, I live in SoCal and this winter has been an outdoor winter.

Lightsaber

lightsaber wrote:

I love Disney (except Zombie high... Bad lessons on contagious disease, but I digress). But I am limiting silos. I have Netflix (restarted recently) and Amazon prime only. I find my HBO fetish is cheaper to buy on Amazon.

There is a limit to what people will pay. I go to sports restaurants for ESPN or a friend's house. I'm ok disconnecting from being a sports fan and with the prices to attend games, I'll teach my kids to play sports.

TV has gone to the far side of pricing. When Netflix losses Disney, I won't even notice. My kids Netflix is one show a week. Then again, I live in SoCal and this winter has been an outdoor winter.

Lightsaber

I go with the two silos you have and count YouTube as a third silo.

If you're a science/technology/history nerd, YouTube's amazing. Unlimited airplane porn too!

Also millenials and younger are big time users, uploading their own stuff or looking at friend's channels.

Instagram has done a great job of capturing a lot of that, though.

Personally I'm a bit disturbed about the peer pressure that creates: kids to have their own "brand" on all kinds of platforms, turning their homes into TV broadcasting studios and needing to brag over all the cool things they have and do, etc.

But, yeah, I'm a grumpy old man. Get off my lawn.

I deal with sports the same way you have. I've cut back a lot. I can still get as much NFL content as ever via broadcast. I use a TiVo to DVR whatever else comes by on broadcast, such as the one NBA game a week that's OTA. I don't feel like I'm missing much.

Revelation wrote:

lightsaber wrote:

I love Disney (except Zombie high... Bad lessons on contagious disease, but I digress). But I am limiting silos. I have Netflix (restarted recently) and Amazon prime only. I find my HBO fetish is cheaper to buy on Amazon.

There is a limit to what people will pay. I go to sports restaurants for ESPN or a friend's house. I'm ok disconnecting from being a sports fan and with the prices to attend games, I'll teach my kids to play sports.

TV has gone to the far side of pricing. When Netflix losses Disney, I won't even notice. My kids Netflix is one show a week. Then again, I live in SoCal and this winter has been an outdoor winter.

Lightsaber

I go with the two silos you have and count YouTube as a third silo.

If you're a science/technology/history nerd, YouTube's amazing. Unlimited airplane porn too!

Also millenials and younger are big time users, uploading their own stuff or looking at friend's channels.

Instagram has done a great job of capturing a lot of that, though.

Personally I'm a bit disturbed about the peer pressure that creates: kids to have their own "brand" on all kinds of platforms, turning their homes into TV broadcasting studios and needing to brag over all the cool things they have and do, etc.

But, yeah, I'm a grumpy old man. Get off my lawn.

I deal with sports the same way you have. I've cut back a lot. I can still get as much NFL content as ever via broadcast. I use a TiVo to DVR whatever else comes by on broadcast, such as the one NBA game a week that's OTA. I don't feel like I'm missing much.

Ok, YouTube and Full30/Patreon.

I loved YouTube until their search algorithms suddenly changed to be more political, big media, and pop culture oriented. I too am a grumpy old man an new music only enters my life via dance class or my kids. I'm too economic inclined to listen to today's political news which is snowflake fluff and as an engineer in defense, enough of my favorite YouTube content such as Forgotten Weapons , is femonemonitized, so the content shifted. How can you engineer defense without historical context?


So I have a love/hate of YouTube as they are using money to sensor. Oh, how to dance videos, language lessons, and other stuff is best there. Real history is migrating elsewhere. . I preferred on stop shopping. I watch a third the YouTube I used to. For creators can only create if there expenses are offset. The WW1 project was ok, the planned 6 year effort on WW2 has multiples more people contributing!

Lightsaber

Nice... but I don't need either...

On an ancillary note, I'm having a hard time with the new monopolies we've created - ISPs. The fragmentation of, or a la carte cable is exactly what consumers are demanding but is still all comes down one pipe owned by some soul-sucking large corporation no better than the cable companies. I'm now paying way more for internet than I ever paid for satellite tv and my only other internet choice is the cable company. I am really rooting hard for Elon Musk to launch those satellites over my head first. Hopefully he won't try to get everything he can out of us.

80% or so of everything my house watches comes free over the airwaves.

Route66 wrote:

On an ancillary note, I'm having a hard time with the new monopolies we've created - ISPs. The fragmentation of, or a la carte cable is exactly what consumers are demanding but is still all comes down one pipe owned by some soul-sucking large corporation no better than the cable companies. I'm now paying way more for internet than I ever paid for satellite tv and my only other internet choice is the cable company. I am really rooting hard for Elon Musk to launch those satellites over my head first. Hopefully he won't try to get everything he can out of us.

80% or so of everything my house watches comes free over the airwaves.

Uhm, yeah, all the fuss about "net neutrality" was all over thes soul-sucking large corporations finding new ways to bend us over, using drumpf's fcc chairman stoogie as the one applying the vasoline.

However, if you're paying more than the bottom tier of broadband, you're probably doing it wrong. Reduce your service to the lowest tier and see if anyone in the house notices. They probably won't unless they're bulk-downloading porn videos.

Of course the industry responds by bumping up the lowest tier to a higher bitrate but increasing the lowest tier price so they capture more of your money.

All done with approval of the state utility board, but see 'drumpf' above.

The corporations own us, and we went easy.

Looks like I'll be firing up good old pirate bay now that we're going back to fractured content providers.

One thong I hate a lot about all these services is that there are no way to watch everything in a single platform and you must manage different accounts on different software provided by different vendors to get what you want

tommy1808 wrote:

cjg225 wrote:

With this move, I will still have 0 streaming subscriptions. I'm perfectly content with my DirecTV bill.

how much do they charge? So far my streaming bill is 8 EUR/month for Netflix and Amazon Prime, that i have for shipping ..... my Cellphone provider tosses in unlimited streaming for free.

best regards
Thomas

How do you get Netflix and amazon Prime for €8 per month?

c933103 wrote:

One thong I hate a lot about all these services is that there are no way to watch everything in a single platform and you must manage different accounts on different software provided by different vendors to get what you want

Agree on the platform side.

I was happy with Amazon Fire TV (box and stick form factors) but then they got in a spat with Google, so Google pulled YouTube, and that was the end of Fire TV for me.

I bought a Roku Ultra because YouTube is a must-watch for me, but it has a poor Amazon Music client, and there's no expectation that Amazon will improve it, because they want you to buy a Fire TV and use it's client.

I looked into Google Chromecast but it's use of a phone as a remote simply is a non-starter for me.

Then there's people who have paid for a lot of content via Apple Store so they're more or less locked in to Apple TV.

At the end of the day one TV has the Roku, another has a Fire Stick, and that's working for now, till the next corporate squabble comes along and changes things.