Yesterday, Disney announced its latest earnings report. With it, they showcased a new plan for the streaming of their movies. In what feels like just months into putting their movies on Netflix, they are going to pull them all. This is in favor of launching their own streaming services.
People have been able to enjoy flicks like Captain America: Civil War and Moana on the most famous streaming service but are about to be out of luck. Disney likely saw the popularity of their movies on Netflix and clearly sees a stronger revenue potential in opening their own services.
While this is still in the beginning phase, the key is that they are aiming for multiple services. They own so much, from Pixar to Star Wars to Marvel, and each of those have a library of content that can be put onto a service. This is not ideal. One of the joys of Netflix or Hulu or Amazon Video is that they have a variety of content and you get it for one price. Disney setting up separate Star Wars and Marvel services is a greedy grab. Paying $10/month so I can watch the MCU and then another $10/month so I can marathon Star Wars is ridiculous.
Another problem is that no one seems to understand this. Eventually everything is going to shift to streaming. Different companies or networks are going to do this same thing. Pull content and open their own service. And then the market is flooded. It defeats the key pull of a streaming service.
100 different options for $5/month where you only get limited content is terrible. Once you add up all the ones you are really devoted to you’re going to end up paying the same as you would for a cable bill. People are transitioning away from cable because it’s cheaper and you get enough content on one service. Everyone doing their own thing makes streaming all for naught.
This might not happen. Or it might, and someone comes along with a bundled service that puts it together and we essentially get cable except it’s streaming online. Who knows. I’d rather not have to go through a period of having to pay $100/month for something I’m getting for $20/month right now.
