If every content producer starts up their own streaming service, cord cutting will cost a fortune, be a total pain in the ass, and drive everybody back to cable and satellite. It's either going to be simple and reasonably priced, or ultimately a total failure.
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Disney Offers First Look at Upcoming Disney+ App, Launching in November for $6.99 Per Month [Update: Will Be Available on Apple Devices]
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Apple's hubris. Apple sees themselves as superior to all competitors and that their customers will pay whatever they charge them. They'll tout their content as superior to everything else out in the market and will price it as such. Their track record is all the proof one needs.
That’s a ridiculous take; Apple’s customers aren’t willing to pay whatever Apple wants to charge; rather Apple charges what customers are willing to pay. That’s simple economics 101.
Apple makes a fortune charging what the market will bear. If in fact 30-50 million are willing to pay $10-15 a month for a couple dozen originals, I guess I’ll be wrong about the value of that offering, and Apple will be right. Let’s revisit this after Apple launches. I don’t have any problem admitting when I’m wrong, we’ll see if the same applies to you
The reality is: Is that Netflix is doing fine and gaining ground. They have been preparing for the withdrawal of others content for quite some time. The main complaint I heard in the first days of Netflix streaming was: "It's all old stuff" Once they started with their own content those complaints faded away. Most Apple fans going after Netflix and Disney are just angry that neither will give their content to Apple. The thread reads the same as the News Apps thread where Apple fans are predicting the downfall of the Times and the Post, again because they won't give their content to Apple at 50% profit.
Apple fans are so predictable in their worship of Apple and they can't seem to figure out that not everyone wants to live in an all Apple world.
No, people won’t be driven back to cable/satellite, because the streaming content won’t be available there. So cable/satellite isn’t a suitable alternative.
A la carte means you pay only for what you want. Maybe you want Criterion, Crunchy Roll and Britbox. I might want Netflix, Disney and Hulu. Someone else HBO, Showtime and Amazon Prime. Yet another wants all of the above.
If you have a better idea I’m sure everyone would like to hear it, or at least I would.
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I don’t need everyone to live in an all-Apple world. Those who do will vote with their wallets accordingly, I believe that there are enough of us in an absolute sense to still make Apple very successful, and Apple’s balance sheet will speak for itself at the end of the day.
These companies who don’t make their services available to the Apple ecosystem won’t get my money, plain and simple. I may be just one person, and I won’t make a difference to their bottom line, but I am willing to put my money where my mouth is.
That said, let’s not pretend that Netflix is somehow invincible or otherwise immune to the effects of competition. I am currently subscribed to Netflix because at $10 a month, I am indifferent between staying subscribing and cancelling my subscription even if I sometimes go for weeks without watching a single show inside (mainly just watching Sabrina and Discovery at the moment). Netflix will eventually have to raise their prices if they want to make a profit and when they do, I wonder how many people will stick around?
Netflix is in a far more precarious position here than Apple and no one seems to want to acknowledge this.
I sure as hell don’t think they’re in it to lose money
Saving this comment for future claim chowder
At some point in the next four years I recommend you take a moment and learn what other content Disney owns. You like Documentaries like the brand new Free Solo? Owned by Disney. You might be surprised by what other properties they own.
Fun times in this industry ahead!
Ridiculous. “Most Apple fans” don’t expect Netflix or Disney to give (I assume you mean available as an Apple Channel inside the TV app?) Apple their content; why would you think that? Certainly not based on what’s been posted here.
And I’ve been following the Apple News+ thread; I don’t remember any “Apple fans” predicting the downfall of the NYT or WaPo if they don’t join. On the contrary, both of those papers are doing just fine and will continue to do so without Apple News+. Is it a surprise that people are willing to pay for high quality content, whether from Apple or others?
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Move over, Netflix. Your dwindling old movies library and high(er) prices will be your downfall. It was good while it lasted!
I'm aware the Disney company is into all sorts of stuff but this article is about the Disney+ channel which, from the description in the article, appears to be limited to childrens' content.
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Apple could have bought Disney in the past. But Disney prepared itself in the last few years and became again the entertainment juggernaut it was born to be. Disney’s market cap is now $233 billion (and growing), while Apple has some $245 billion in cash (and growing).
While Apple could still theoretically buy Disney, it would consume nearly all its cash. Plus, I supppose Apple would have to offer a premium to buy Disney, as I imagine such a traditional company with such a bright future would not be sold just for its market cap. And not even Apple would have the money to buy that.
It is exactly the opposite. Disney+ was announced back then.
When Apple announced Apple TV+, it sounded like some sort of copycat.
But to be honest, there might be some corporate espionage out there, which makes it impossible to know which one came first, and even if one copied the other.
Streaming music and TV have gone different ways. I can stream nearly every song I want from both Spotify and Apple Music. They are kind of interchangeable. I can choose between both these services based on the interface or the features. The content is very similar, give or take a few exceptions. So, I do not need to have both. This also means that Spotify subscribers can easily move to Apple Music if it offers better value, features or interface.
With TV, streaming services are moving in another direction. They are all in a race to offer exclusive content. It means that, to have it all, you need to subscribe to all these services. But the content does not even exist yet; it is being created and beefed up at this very moment. They are all competing to offer future content. And some consumers are already worried about how they can afford buying all this content that they do not need, they never had, they will not have time to watch, and they do not even know how good it is, because it simply does not exist yet.
The only streaming service that has impressed me so far is Disney+.
Netflix used to be a good deal, but now it is only losing property (as other studios claim back their own to protect themselves and their own services), rushing to put out new content which is not necessarily attractive, and raising its prices in the process. I have watched a few of the new Netflix shows, and some are OK or good but quite generic and replaceable.
Apple showed off a bunch of big names, but no real thing. Apple announced some series that sounded really unattractive to me at this point. It has a lot of money to make a great subscription service, but, at least in my impression, the announcements have been missteps so far. There are some people anticipating Apple TV+. But, honestly, if any company other than Apple had made the same announcement, would it still get the same amount of excitement? I doubt it.
Disney+ has a lot of familiar content. The back catalog is high quality and significant. Disney animated classics. Pixar. Marvel. Star Wars. And now Fox. Almost 100 years of content produced beefed up by recent acquisitions. And new series and movies based on well-known properties. All of this with the perceived quality of a company that set standards for years. Apple may have more cash, but Disney is the real big player here, and the one that will be hard to beat.
The question is, how many subscription services will users be willing to pay for? And the other is, how many subscribers are needed for a subscription service be profitable? Is there room for Disney, Netflix, Apple TV, HBO, Amazon, and everyone else?
I will have one or two, as I will not have time for more. Occasionally, I may subscribe one for a month or so to watch some series. Disney+ is the top one for me now, and, unless it screws up big, I will certainly subscribe for that one. The others will still have to convince me.
Hulu Plus predated then both. And of course there was iPhone 7 Plus, etc.
Is the big innovation everyone is so up in arms about the change to using the symbol?
Of course content is king; what else is there to stream? And no one is predicting instant success for Apple or anything but likely success for Disney. The point of all of this is that Apple doesn't need, and would be foolish to spend a hundred billion to acquire the content when they can get a cut of it, and also get more value by slowing acquiring rights to their own content.
There's no secret to original content. The companies, Sony, Disney, Amazon, Netflix, Paramount, etc., etc., do exactly the same thing: they go to the exact same pool of actors, producers, directors, writers, etc., and give them money to produce TV shows and movies. Of course you want smart industry people to help organize all of this and Apple has hired some of the most successful people in the industry to be part of the Apple TV process. Remember, they are not trying to dominate the industry; they don't have to. All they have to do is add value to their trillion dollar ecosystem. That's why Apple has such a massive advantage as they can focus on quality value adds when a company like Netflix has but one source of income with ever increasing competitors to that single stream.
We know in ROTJ Boba dies in the most undramatic and shameful way though
If you read the extended universe, Boba never dies and ends up climbing out.
It’s a shame that the current Star Wars direction did not take advantage of the lore from the books
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If that is all they desire, then we and the other major streaming services including Netflix can simply disregard anything Apple+ because they are content with being noncompetitive
The only reason apple can have at this point that they’re even doing this is having just enough content to get you to use the atv app. Their main purpose is to sell channels. Apple wins there. Because of this Apple can price their own service much lower and should. It won’t be past 4.99 and probably an add on to music or other services they have.
The shows and such are basically marketing expenses. This is why Apple is so desperate to get channels added. They’d love Disney plus to join the atv app. Apple wants you to buy the likes of Hulu and hbo through them and the atv app.
Apple direct competition here is amazon who does the same.
From an online article about Disney and their streaming plans:
"On Thursday afternoon at Disney’s Burbank lot, CEO Bob Iger opened the 2019 Investor Day by highlighting the “evergreen” quality of the Walt Disney Company’s content and explaining how that will propel their growing direct-to-consumer (DTC) business, which includes Disney+, Hulu (of which they now own 60%), ESPN+, and India’s Hotstar.
He was followed by Kevin Mayer, chairman of direct-to-consumer and international, who noted that in anticipation for their plans to enter the streaming marketplace, Disney purchased streaming services company Bamtech in 2016 and renamed it Disney Streaming Services.
Mayer also explained that even though Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu will initially have to be paid as individual subscriptions, the company has plans to bundle the three at a discounted prize in the near future. He confirmed that unlike Hulu and ESPN+, which have ad-supported options, Disney+ will only be available as an ad-free service. The service is expected to be available globally in the future. Disney also plans to expand Hulu’s international footprint."
Full article written by Carlos Aguilar here: CartoonBrew
With the Star Wars and MCU films all being pulled from other streaming services the available content for Disney streaming will not just be kiddie fare, although they might put those on Hulu, which I did not know that Disney had controlling ownership of before reading this article.
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Saving this comment for future claim chowder
At some point in the next four years I recommend you take a moment and learn what other content Disney owns. You like Documentaries like the brand new Free Solo? Owned by Disney. You might be surprised by what other properties they own.
Fun times in this industry ahead!
Disney owns National Geographic channel and all of the decades of documentaries that they have made. Documentaries don't factor into many viewers streaming decisions.
You think adults don’t watch this stuff? LOL!!!
BTW, did you listen to Iger? Disney will offer their other content through their streaming service for additional fees including ESPN, Hulu, etc.
No, I don’t think that. That’s why I didn’t write that. (LOL)
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There’s nothing left of the “old” National Geographic except the name. Looking right now at what’s on the NAtional Geographic UK channel and it’s five back to back episodes of a souped up gold digging competition followed by five back to back episodes of a souped up documentary of lorry driving in winter. No wonder they don’t figure in anyone’s decisions anymore.
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It is not important at all... The iPhone 7 Plus was in a different context. But it does not matter anyway.