Topic: Disney+

[BlackNMild2k1]

Disney is planning a 4hour Investors meeting....
Speculation is that there will be LOTS of announcements to be made for D+ going forward.
We all know Marvel Studios is backed up on projects right now.... a handful that were supposed to be released already have been pushed into 2021, and all the projects for 2021 are under development in some manner already as well, so expect an avalanche of MCU projects/announcements for 2021.

Also with WB just announcing the HBO Max/Theater plans for 2021.... makes you wonder what Disney has planned.... will we get Black Widow at home on D+ Premium Rental?

BURBANK, Calif., December 3, 2020 – The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) will webcast its Investor Day 2020 on December 10, 2020. The event, focused on the Company’s direct-to-consumer streaming services, is scheduled to begin at approximately 4:30 p.m. ET / 1:30 p.m. PT. The Investor Day is expected to last approximately four hours.

Source:https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/the-walt-disney-company-to-webcast-investor-day-2020/

[nickmitch]

Marvel/Disney are past due on a decision for a Black Widow release.  It's been a year since the first trailer, and the pandemic isn't going away just yet.  I know they want their billion dollar tentpoles, but those may be a ways off.  Also, with D+ content and feature films understandably delayed, it'll be nice to see what's on the schedule for the coming year.

[Adrock]

Ideally, if Disney wants to offer rated R/TV-14 and up content, lock it behind parental controls on Disney+. I don’t want another app, another subscription, or a price hike.

Alternatively, it might just be easier to offer that content on Hulu and add more bundles. Does anyone really want ESPN+? How about a $9.99/$12.99 bundle with Disney+ and Hulu with ads/no ads? Yes, that is technically another app, another subscription, and a price hike. However, I don’t want another Disney-related one on top of them.

Or just fold Hulu into Disney+. 🤷‍♀️

Will Hulu Be Folded Into Disney+ Because There's Strength in Numbers?

For more than a year now, there has been speculation that Disney might one day fold Hulu into its Disney+ streaming service, and sure enough, Collider is hearing that multiple Hulu executives have been leaving or let go from the streaming service in anticipation of the move, which makes a lot of sense from a business perspective.

The working theory is that there's strength in numbers, and The Walt Disney Company would look much more appealing to Wall Street investors if it could boast of having 110 million subscribers on a single service, rather than 73.7 million on Disney+ and 36.6 million on Hulu. It simply makes more sense to combine the two streaming services into one single juggernaut that appeals to both families and adults.

[NWR_insanolord]

It probably makes a decent amount of sense now that Disney owns Fox and the other major content owners are in the process of moving their stuff off of Hulu and to their own streaming platforms. As the weirdo who currently gets Hulu but not Disney+ I wouldn't mind getting access to that stuff as long as the price is less than the cost of both of them right now.

[nickmitch]

Will Hulu Be Folded Into Disney+ Because There's Strength in Numbers?

For more than a year now, there has been speculation that Disney might one day fold Hulu into its Disney+ streaming service, and sure enough, Collider is hearing that multiple Hulu executives have been leaving or let go from the streaming service in anticipation of the move, which makes a lot of sense from a business perspective.

The working theory is that there's strength in numbers, and The Walt Disney Company would look much more appealing to Wall Street investors if it could boast of having 110 million subscribers on a single service, rather than 73.7 million on Disney+ and 36.6 million on Hulu. It simply makes more sense to combine the two streaming services into one single juggernaut that appeals to both families and adults.

I'm reading that quote as "it makes sense because it could bump the stock price", but the stock price has pretty much already returned to pre-COVID numbers and Disney will certainly benefit from the release of the vaccine(s).  I'm also not buying the math here.  Disney already pushed people to get both services by offering a bundle that included ESPN+, so there's gotta be at least some overlap.  Now, how much overlap is an interesting question, but I think it could be a lot.

[Spak-Spang]

I mean I could see other aspects of the merging the 2 together that we may not consider.

1) Bandwidth.  The potential of freeing up bandwidth being used in 2 services to only be used for one might play a part in this.

2) Contracts ending with shows.  Hulu used to be a service where many of the companies had shares so there was no larger majority owner.  Now Disney is the big stock holder after they got Fox...so I could see other companies wanting to move their series off of Hulu and onto their own streamer...once Hulu begins losing properties folding it into Disney Plus (if when Disney + decides to add adult content) makes sense. 

3) Consolidating services into a single streamer is more comfortable for consumers and it helps add value to your product.  People are already tired of the numerous streaming services and they have a number in their head how many they will subscribe to.  I bet most people only want to subscribe to 2 or 3.  So if you can show your streamer to meet the needs of the whole family you are going to get that money.

4) The Competition is getting stronger. Netflix remains a juggernaut and has built itself an empire that can survive even losing legacy shows because of its strong original content.  HBO Max has the WB backed legacy films and television with the HBO brand that has been around forever and has tons of great original series and if things get desperate they can even go deeper and deeper into that HBO library.  Now willing with Warner Bros giving a years worth of box office movies straight to HBO Max that is hard to compete with. 

[nickmitch]

Spak, I agree that there's a lot of benefit to merging the services.  I do think that Disney may want to wait and see how things play out for a little bit.  We're just into the second year of D+, and it's been quite a year at that.  While merging the two would certainly grow the combined base and help it compete, I think it's a little too early for that move.

[Spak-Spang]

I mean it is true.  But if Disney wants to just appease investors.  That number of subscribers looks bigger.  Also, if Disney is going to add mature content then Hulu makes less sense in general.  The only question is...Hulu is still just a US service and Disney is trying to position Disney+ as an international service.  So, would it be easier to figure out how to stream all the Hulu shows slowly on Disney+ or move Hulu internationally? 

[nickmitch]

That's a great question that I suppose depends on what issues does Hulu have facing an international rollout?  It's likely (without knowing anything or even looking it up) network licensing/distribution issues, which don't go away easily.  With D+, it's all content they control and have held on to tightly, so it might be easier to move Hulu content that they can control into D+ progressively for the foreign markets.

As for Disney making mature content, I think it's gonna depend on what the content is.  I think it makes sense to keep Deadpool on D+ as it'd be the sole place for MCU content, but anything that's more "Fox" than "Disney" might make more sense on Hulu.  But I would like to see what other mature content Disney plans to make.

[NWR_insanolord]

That's a fair concern. Does Disney want something like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which they own now, on Disney+ along with all their other stuff?

[Stratos]

If you believe all the rumors combined with actual announcements, there are at least five different Star Wars shows coming. You have the Boba Fett mini series, the Ahsoka show, the Obi-Wan show, the "new rumored trilogy w/ Ahsoka", the rebels sequel show, and the Bad Batch, and there was an announced film from Kevin Feige as well. This isn't even counting other less credible rumors and old announcements that may or may not be dead.

[Adrock]

Disney Plus is increasing its price to $8 a month starting in March 2021

My knee-jerk reaction to this: **** ALL the way off.

After thinking about this a little more, my more nuanced reaction is I don’t think Disney really did anything to justify the price increase. It’s marquee exclusive/original show is The Mandalorian which I like. Wandavision premieres in about a month, then right around when Falcon and the Winter Solider drops, y’all raise the price by a dollar. I guess. 🤷‍♀️

I always expected a price hike, just not this soon. Maybe Disney had to swerve due to COVID-19 affecting its theme parks and whatnot. I’m kind of glad I signed up for three years up front, but the sub-$5 price helps me justify paying for something I don’t use especially often. Once that deal ends, I can probably just sign up for a month here and there to catch up on shows (bring over Futurama and maybe I’ll reconsider). Instead of paying $79.99 for a year, I may do $7.99 a few times a year. Even then, that’s just the current announced pricing. This is only going to get worse. Disney is raising the price when it doesn’t have a ton of original content. When it finally does with all the Marvel and Star Wars shows in the pipeline, I can see this getting ugly fast. I currently pay $13.85 per month for Netflix, and that took like a decade. I just cannot justify another monthly streaming subscription as the prices increase. That’s mostly due to lack of time.

[BlackNMild2k1]

It's going up $1, not bad... but as stated, a little unearned based on current offerings, but the service is pretty damn cheap as is, so it's not too bad.

Even after paying for the first 3 years upfront, I really feel that Disney should reward us early 3yr adopters with an extra year at a discounted price after having next to nothing worthwhile to subscribe for during the 1st year. We deserve an extension on the discount if you ask me.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Here's a link for the 11 Star Wars related shows coming to D+ and/or Theaters in the near future

http://www.theforce.net/story/front/Future_Lucasfilm_Projects_Revealed_188114.asp

[nickmitch]

I think that because the D+ content volume issue has so much to do with the pandemic, I'm a little more relaxed about it.  I wish they put out more stuff over the past year, and I agree with BnM that offering a discount for the 3yr buyers would be nice since we prepaid for a year that mostly wasn't.  The amount of stuff coming out feels like a flood of content to justify a price hike, but honestly, they can just give me the loot and let me decide how I feel in March.

I'm much more annoyed by Hulu's annual price hike, since that service has felt more stagnant to me and has had UI/functionality issues for some time.

[Stratos]

I'm much more annoyed by Hulu's annual price hike, since that service has felt more stagnant to me and has had UI/functionality issues for some time.

Also annoying because it is the only service with ads unless you want to pay an exorbitant premium. The potential to remove ads would be why I am hopeful they roll Hulu into D+.

[nickmitch]

I'm much more annoyed by Hulu's annual price hike, since that service has felt more stagnant to me and has had UI/functionality issues for some time.

Also annoying because it is the only service with ads unless you want to pay an exorbitant premium. The potential to remove ads would be why I am hopeful they roll Hulu into D+.

I use them for cable as well, so I just said "**** it" and went all out.  One issue is that some content is there because of the live TV, and I can't skip commercials.  But other stuff is there because Hulu, and I never know which is which.

[NWR_insanolord]

If I'm not mistaken, Hulu with no ads is still cheaper than Netflix. It's like $2 a month, well worth it if you use the service.

[Stratos]

You and I agree, my wife does not. We also get Netflix costs covered by our phone plan so Netflix will always win out until that perk eventually goes away.

Though I do see her point, as we already have a lot of subscription services. Disney bundle w/ Hulu and ESPN, Netflix, Amazon, Nintendo Online.

I thought it was more than $2 but maybe it is different when bundled? $2 is easier to swallow (and we split costs with her sister, so that would only be a dollar), but with the hike in D+ costs it may dash my hopes of getting her on board anytime soon.

[NWR_insanolord]

So I've got Disney+ now since I already had Hulu and ESPN+ and I figured it was worth the extra $2 for the bundle. I'm not sure what to watch, though. I'm not really a fan of the superhero genre so the Marvel stuff doesn't appeal to me. What else is on there that people here are enjoying?

[Adrock]

”Go see a Star War.”

You of all people probably already had access to The Simpsons. Futurama is apparently tied up in existing contracts so maybe that makes the jump once those run out. Otherwise, Pixar and Disney’s vault of animated films are available. I mostly forget to check Disney+. I have a whole bunch of Pixar to catch up on.

Honestly, if I didn’t like Marvel, I’d find it very hard to justify subscribing to Disney+ (even with the discounted price) because that’s where a lot of upcoming exclusive content is coming from. It’s hard to believe Disney voluntarily sold the rights to Studio Ghibli’s entire catalog. In a rare instance of lacking foresight, it missed out on more exclusive content.

[BlackNMild2k1]

This is some BIG News.

Disney and Sony ink a deal to bring Sony Pictures to Disney+
https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/disney-sony-marvel-spiderman-movie-deal-1234957207/

the short of it is, All movies starting w/ releases in 2022 will come exclusively to Disney Platforms (D+, Hulu, ABC, FX, etc etc), after the initial 18month stay at Netflix (Sony just inked a deal w/ Netflix as well for the post Theater run streaming).

But this also means Spider-Man and other older Sony Movies will soon be moving to Disney+ as well.

Soon the MCU collection on D+ will be complete, save for one lone hold out in the Incredible Hulk.

This is also a good indication for negotiations with Sony on a 2nd Spidey Trilogy (the college years?)
and may also lead to that eventual Disney buyout of Sony Pictures in the next decade or so?

[Adrock]

So... conveniently after my promotional subscription deal ends? Cool, cool.

[Plugabugz]

That deal seems to be US only. So much like with the Warner Bros content on HBO Max, all of which is releasing as a premium ÂŁ15/$20 rental here, it will get left aside.

[BlackNMild2k1]

I hadn't even heard of Free Guy, but now that I know about it, I'll be waiting for that D+ release