Disney: The Dumpster Fire Grows
It is no wonder Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney, wants to get out of broadcast television. He is starting down the path of getting destroyed, something that is going to keep building.
The conflict with Charter (Spectrum) made news. For more than a week, the Disney family of channels was removed from the cable company's system. This included ESPN which got the most attention since sports is still a popular draw on the medium.
Ultimately, a deal was worked out. This, however, was not in Disney's favor. In fact, the deal Iger swallowed will come back to haunt him.
Now, we are getting a few more details about the deal.
Charter Wins The Deal
There is no way to sugar coat this: Charter won the deal.
Essentially, Disney agreed to give Charter the following deal:
With the purchase of Spectrum TV Select packages, customers receive Disney+ Basic (with ads). Customers who purchase Spectrum TV Select Plus will have ESPN+. And the ESPN flagship direct-to-consumer service, which is yet to launch, will be made available to Spectrum TV Select subscribers.
At the same time, these channels are being dropped by Charter. This is 8 of the 19 channels the company offers.
Baby TV, Disney Junior, Disney XD, Freeform, FXM, FXX, Nat Geo Wild and Nat Geo Mundo.
While those channels might not be tops on everyone's list, they did just lose access to 15 million of the 75 million households that still subscribe to cable. The channels also lose the fees that go with those subs. Even if it was a nickel per household each month, that adds up across 15 million.
Essentially Charter swapped the fees it was paying for those channels for gaining access to the channels added to the Spectrum TV Select and Plus plans.
Problem For Disney
There are two challenges here for Disney.
To start, these channels now do not have the revenue coming in to sustain their operations. While they might not have been huge, they did likely generate some revenues to cover their costs.
Another issue is the content. These channels were feeder systems into the Disney streaming services. Shows produced and shown on there were eventually feed to the streaming platforms, including Hulu. This means some content will be lost.
Finally, and most important, what do you think is going to happen when the contracts with the other cable companies comes due? These entities will want a deal as good, if not better, than what Charter got. What is Disney going to do, turn then down?
We are likely to see a ripple effect throughout the entire industry.
Disruption Before Our Eyes
Why did I keep writing about Disney and the problems it is facing?
The answer lies in the fact we are watching the implosion of an American brand due to disruption. Their entire business model is screwed yet they are still playing the game like it is going to all work out.
In reality, streaming is not the golden child promised. Outside of Netflix, the total cost for all these services is into the tens of billions. Disney alone has lost $11 billion on streaming and that number keeps growing.
Cord cutting is not going to stop and the direct to customer is the future. The question, however, is what will be going to the customer.
Video is huge. This is not going to change. It is why I keep insisting on its importance on Leo. We need to keep incorporating all video ideas.
That said, my day was spent with the AMA along with watching a few 3Speak and YouTube videos. There was not broadcast or mainstream media on my day. It will end with doing the Cryptomaniac show, something that we stream on many different platforms.
We are dealing with the attention economy. Here is the problem for Disney, cable companies, and Hollywood: there are more options out there and they keep growing.
For every minute someone spends watching a YouTube video, as an example, that is one minute away from the mainstream services. This has a huge impact upon the revenues and earning potential of those corporations.
Hollywood is seeing how bad the numbers are at the box office. An entire generation of people are now being groomed NOT to go to the movies. It is likely cinemas go the way of the video arcade, possibly by the end of the decade.
In short, there are other options cropping up. Disney is fighting the clock and doing a poor job. Perhaps it is a no win situation. No matter what happens, the company will end up being scaled down in a decade. There is no way these media firms will remain as they are.
The fact Disney is having a fire sale with some of its broadcast stations tells you how dire the situation is. Iger is well aware the future is not in that. However, it might not be in other parts of his business either.
Posted Using LeoFinance Alpha
Time, are changing and they are changing real fast. So much to learn for web3 developers and too much to catch up because the old gods won’t go down without putting up a good fight.
I think Web 3.0 is really going to alter this completely.
It is going to be amazing how we change things.
And it will surely shine through a lot of old systems.
Disruption does that. It is up to us to keep pushing it through.
there’s definitely a lot of changes coming in so many facets of our lives. A lot of it is hype but there are also real things going on that are going to snowball. What I wonder is what the future will look like, more decentralized? We can only hope so!
I think the answer is in what we focus upon. There is a lot of things that can be spread out. Energy is an example where we might see decentralization. Within computing, it is likely a given.
for sure I would love to see decentralization of energy. It’s about time the stranglehold is released! Not even for just extracting easy things like natural gas but making our own miniature power plants for our houses or neighborhoods. Keeping it as local as possible.
That is just an example. We can see it in a lot of things.
Look at broadcast television. Things are changing in the attention economy.
I did the dance with Spectrum today. The package we bought two years ago when we moved in with my Dad is coming to an end on October 6th. At that point our bill would have been around $364 dollars a month. We are going to just have high speed internet from them and streaming from other services. What I found interesting was when I was talking with the customer service agent she wasn't pushing services or trying to upsell me. That was surprising. Spectrum customers were going to get a whopping 6 dollar rebate for the week that those channels went dark. Now we will have to teach Dad how to use YouTube TV so he can watch the channels that he likes. That should be fun. LOL
I know someone who have YouTube TV. It really isnt that complicated.
Smart move. Not that I am huge fan of Google but take money away from these broadcast networks and cable companies when possible.
That's good to know about YouTube TV.
It sounds like the Cable Companies are having to move toward offering the ala carte services and letting people choose their own bundles of channels they want to watch. Soon they're going to have to get rid of their contracts as well. We can hope anyway.
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The entertainment industry is changing.
We are now moving towards #web3. We need to get content on Hive that people want to watch.
It certainly is. And the writers want a bigger piece of that pie. They could probably get it if they wrote content for HIVE.
I really try to avoid anything Disney these days. Tired of supporting these corrupt corporations
Without a doubt. Especially when they hate their customers and want to lecture them.
But there are much bigger problems than that for them.
I don't want any Disney close to children. They've been going down the fully mental road for more than a decade now. Nothing wholesome, no moral values, nothing empowering, just super high quality garbage, in short the McDonalds of the TV and Movie industry.
All valid point that are impossible to argue with. Iger is very smart in knowing about propaganda.
This is not by mistake.
They know precisely what they are doing, 0% chance any of that stuff is accidental.
Yep. He has an agenda that is tied to something bigger. These people see what is happening in the world. It is why the writers and actors mean nothing to him. He is well aware of #technology and how it will affect his industry.
In other words, the people in the union are quickly heading to being obsolete.
This is where people like him elevate their views to changing society how they want.
The End Game is to have a lasting influence that not only affects our current culture but also future generations, like the old Star Wars Trilogy maybe.
Here's a big BUT, maybe they can't recreate the impact of the centuries-old Brothers Grimm stories like Snow White or Hansel & Gretel. I do believe they resonate with the human condition itself. In order to write stories like that, you need to sacrifice what is dearest to you and your agenda, it's almost biblical.
Just saw a Disney plus ad for $1.99 a month 😂