With Disney’s Move to Streaming, a New Era Begins

Sad that the marketplace is becoming so fragmented that finding a happy medium of content and price is going to be harder and harder to do. Ironically, if this continues too far, it could actually drive folks back to cable bundles as the cheaper way to go.

The problem as always is "original content". Just how successful is Netflix with their original content? Their successes are heavily promoted, but what about their failures? And now 50 movies a year??

They are in trouble. My ESPN watching has declined 90 percent and I still have the conventional cable package. Too many political comments on sports shows, which is not why I watch sports.

Disney is just one of the oligarchs.

Netflix had a great monopoly on streaming services for a long time. Now maybe a good time to change that. But honestly I can only enjoy a small percentage of the offered programming. People are producing way too many movies and shows with little value to me. I used to love changing my TV channels from Disney to Nick to Cartoon Network and ABC family and Fox for The Simpsons when I was a child. But as an adult, I regret that I didn't spent more time reading books at libraries or enjoying something other than sitting in front of the TV, mindlessly changing channels. Actually I used the library more to use the computer to watch other stuff that's not on cable TV, like Asian TV shows and movies. Now that everyone in my family has their own computer, we each enjoy what we like. My dad watches TV for golf and I occasionally watch HBO. But there are so many forms of entertainment now that's not on cable TV or Netflix. Hey I'm paying for NYtimes subscription without the need to turn on the TV for news. Eventually Disney or Netflix may buy the other and become even bigger but since I have so many choices of entertainment I probably wouldn't care in the end.

Root Sports (owned by Direct TV which is owned by AT&T) needs a streaming service or at least be included with Direct TV Now. I mean, do they want my money, or should I just go to more Utah Jazz games in person? The days where I was willing to shell out money for 200+ plus channels so I get the 6 I actually want are over and I will never go back.

It seems nothing to do with Canadians. Our bandwidth subscriptions are extremely expensive regardless of how you subscribe a plan. The so-called unlimited access is more like a status symbol to most of us. So, enjoy another streaming service, my dear American folks.

Well, it was kind of inevitable wasn't it. From the days of 'free' broadcasts, they've found a way to monetize for themselves every single second of airtime, with our eager help. Let's hear it once more for big, big business, and we the gullible consumers who are their enablers. Remember how crazy we thought it was that Charles Dolan would ask us to pay for HBO? Who's laughing now...

Reminds me of the push for online payments with various providers (Venmo etc) vying for your $ (or vhs vs beta almost 40 years ago). Best to wait and see how this plays out. I'll stick with Netflix and Amazon Prime while I cord-shave on the other end. Spectrum etc are getting what they so deserve, slowly but surely.

Disney is way late to the game. ESPN is like MTV, ruined. Millennials hate baseball, so what will Disney stream? Baseball.

Netflix and Amazon video have swooped in and dominated the market. I can access Netflix on my Xfinity cable box. Like Spotify, with 50 million paid subscribers, who will change? How many playlists do they have? Hard to change, Ask Amazon Prime Music and Apple Music.

If you add up the individual subscriptions these geniuses think you will pay for it is cheaper to stick with the cable bundle.

We primarily stream to avoid the commercial ridden children's (and adult) television programming. So much streaming that when my monopoly TimeWarner/Spectrum internet was out last month I had to turn on the TiVo box to see if CATV was still getting down the cable.
Even broadcast is filtered through the TiVo (yes they still exist and are better than ever) skip-mode to fly through the commercials.
If only the money spent on commercials would go away and reduce the cost of products by a corresponding amount in some left pocket right pocket logic.

I'm also reading that this will cause a lot of upset to those that currently have invested in Disney Movies Anywhere (me included) and the owned rights in the KeyLocker.

Mickey is not nearly as smart as the folks at Netflix. But competition is good for everyone. Traditional cable subscriptions are in the process of dying because their greed has overpriced themselves. There is nothing to stop the streaming companies from providing news services as well. It is all happening through the internet. What we need is cheap, fast internet connections available to everyone. The U.S. is way behind most countries in speed and reliability of its internet connectivity portal. The connections have been monopolized and only benefit those who own the connections not the consumers.

As Netflix discovered you can't shove massive amounts of VOD through the network core. You have to build your own transmission network, cache video streams on edge servers in larger markets, and struggle with the ISPs that control broadband distribution. The so called "last mile".

Lets hope Disney does it the right way, and does not pressure the FCC to end net neutrality, as it's chairman Ajit Pai, is already inclined to do, as a means to carry it's content over the "public internet". Is Disney ready to pump 1/2 $B or more into network fiber and hardware?

Now we will see what happens. Perhaps Netflix will make some great children content (such as Stranger Things) Disney will be little missed. As to Sports....ESPN is now up against Facebook and Amazon streaming.

Let the wars begin.

The days of the consumer being held hostage by everything in the kitchen sink cable bundle package will gradually go away. But the big question is what the average consumer is willing to cough up for having to subscribe to multiple services to stream a la carte? And how simple will the industry make it to switch?

I think Disney made the right move, but is a day late, a dollar short. If they don't get the subscribers they expect they may end come crawling back to Netflix, or striking a deal w/ Apple TV.

Save your money. My broadband package of 25 GB/month from Exede Satellite for $140 and $10 per GB thereafter precludes me from doing any streaming.

The best entertainment values right now are digital subscriptions to NYT ($15/mo.) and Wapo ($10/mo). What can be better than the reality show that comes from the White House and Trump's mouth.

So Disney finally realized no one buys videotapes anymore?
Personally, I can't think of any worse entertainment for my child than those awful princess movies on a constant loop.

Bad news for consumers.

The thing I don't like with Netflix is the very thing they now push, their own material. As far as self produced I think HBO remains the gold standard. Other services have been hit or miss with a few hits. Does Netflix ever rate their own less than ☆☆☆☆☆?

I'll pass on Disney. No reason to pay for even another streaming service!!

Argh. Just what America doesn't need. Another insidious streaming service to creep into our lives keeping us ever more distracted (bread and circuses) from paying attention to our current reality of living with dangerously crumbling roads and bridges, unregulated and skyrocketing health care inflation, increasingly regressive taxation (looked at your streaming and cell-phone bills lately?), heartwrenching environmental degradation and ridiculously unpalatable college tuition prices.

Disney has far too much time and definitely too much money on their hands if they don't start trying to do far better things with all that mullah. I used to like them. Forty years ago. No more.

Yet another streaming service to pay for every month? Since its Disney they will probably try to charge more than Netflix for a subscription too. No thanks. Piracy of shows and movies has gone down since Netflix and Amazon have created quality streaming services for people to obtain the movies and shows they want to see, when they want to see them, without having to be tied to cable. If the streaming services become as annoying and expensive as cable then piracy is bound to rise again. I predict that in a year Disney will be complaining about the higher level of piracy on their products.

This is anything but "rare and impressive." It's playing catch up. Disney has finally realized where the future lies: in streaming. It's still a good move -- better late than never -- but I'm afraid that a corporation as large as Disney will find ways to mess it up (in either performance or pricing). Netflix has had a huge head-start, and matching its ease and convenience will be difficult, but good luck to Disney!

It is too bad that they don't focus on creative film production, rather than churning out the same stuff (both in style and content) over and over again

As streamer Hulu discovered, a lot of parents will pay the "no advertising" premium to save their kids from exposure to commercials. In fact, no kids in my home, but same sentiment applies, I pay upfront to keep ads away (BBC & HBO model). If Disney and others can keep sponsor pitches off their services, viewers will stick. But falling to the lure of cable's greedy "dual revenue stream" addiction gonna kill any desire for these startup-streamers off fast.

Just like our society has fractured into various groups that identify only with each other, so has the various media offerings.

I predict a merge of Netflix and Disney with a corresponding surge in pricing to match or exceed what most of us now pay for lousy cable service. The behemoth will then kill off Hulu, Amazon and other streaming apps. Isn't this the new U.S. business model? Merge and destroy.

So I guess DVDs will be making a comeback?

Visionary? I cut the cable years ago and the choices have only gotten better especially with commercial free HULU and all the homegrown series on Netflix. If these Media Gods really want to rock the boat they should bundle a small handful of steaming channels with "same day" availability.
That would be revolutionary!

So all the content owners are going solo for their distribution...until the public has had enough and rebels against maintaining 50 different video streaming accounts...and then the streaming services begin partnering...then consolidating...

...and we all arrive with a product from the future called 'bundled cable television'

As this grows heads and gets more complicated, I will continue to limit my watching further.

Wow Disney is so visionary to think that streaming is the future.

When all the entertainment companies have their own individual streaming services (with their own individual fees), we may just long for the days when we could get everything from one provider at one low price!