The bigger issue is using the extremely profitable parks to pad numbers in streaming. They could absolutely afford to charge guests less at WDW (and allow more APs, in this case) while still making a fortune but they need to maximize our spending to balance the budget sheets at Disney+. They are literally convinced they can’t pay to increase staffing if it is to pay for more APs to attend.
Ever since Covid it feels like they have been in a panic. They aren't the only one. All media companies are panicking cause they don't know to move into streaming without spending a fortune to add content.
They also need theatrical releases for tent poles and haven’t learned how and when to move those properties to streaming without A) losing money at the box office and B) alienating paid streamers who don’t want to wait 6 months.
Unfortunately IMO it's going to cost them big in the end. Especially if Epic Universe is massive success.
Using their linear TV networks to build up content on the streamers makes sense, but treating the parks like a money tree only ends one way. Your customers can see the assets depreciating right in front of their eyes while you increase costs. Eventually the tree will be bare.
I just don't the day streaming will ever be a big profit source for Disney. They need new content which costs money and to cover those costs they need to significantly raise prices. With the amount of subscribers they have they aren't making money. I am still of the belief that all companies put too much focus on constant new content. It's costing them too much money to do that. It's not going to work using streaming to replace network TV and new shows. I don't see the actors and people that make shows taking a pay cut. Then where does the money come from to pay for all of this?
I’d love for them to be successful. Like them, I have no idea how they can churn out enough strong content without breaking the bank. They definitely need people better equipped to prevent duds from being made. They can’t simply cut original content and just throw in the planned-theatrical releases that are moved to streaming due to low viewer satisfaction.
The only other option that could work for theatrical releases is still release them to the theatres but when they come to streaming may people pay extra to watch them. After 8 months they become free.
They need to figure out how to thread that needle without losing subscribers. Hopefully, they employ advisers who can figure out the exact timing but I’m not sure such people exist. No other company seems to have gotten it right. Clearly, Chapek’s strategy of moving to streaming about a month after release didn’t work. No one went to theaters.
Or you are cheap like my family and we have the a couple of sports streaming services to watch NHL and NFL. Other then that we only have the free ones.
Pretty sure actors are paid a lower scale for content produced for streaming vs theaters.
How is this different from VoD? You can rent recent releaes from iTunes,Google Play, Vuudu etc
It's not different but they aren't doing that right now.
They are trying that delay with The Way of Water. Do monthly subscriber fees make up for DVD sales? Maybe they need a more expensive tier for the extra content (Director cuts, interviews, etc)?
Same, but add those $20 million Marvel episodes and it’s clear why they’re losing.
If direct ro consumer wont work for the Walt Disney Company long-term, then you might as well say it won’t work for anyone unless they don’t care if they lose any money on it (Apple TV+ or Prime Video).
You don't know how lucky you were that Kong and Fast and Furious were down, if anything, that added to your Universal Orlando experienceJust finished my first couple days at UOR and came back to update… we will NOT be Uni people now, we’ll definitely add a day to future WDW trips but I don’t see us ever giving more than a day to Uni compared to 4-5 at WDW.
The good… Velocicoaster is absolutely incredible, Hagrids is amazing, Hogwarts express was really cool, and the HP lands are stunning… that was it, nothing else compared to WDw in my opinion.
The bad… I was shocked how much was down for most of the last 2 days, we never got on Hulk because it was down, never got on Mummy because it was down, never got on Rip Ride Rocket because it was down, saw about 10 minutes of Bourne before it went down, Kong was down, Fast and Furious was down, got food but never got our drinks at Leakey Cauldron (they said a computer error lost the mobile drink orders, they refunded us)… maybe we just got unlucky because it was so cold and nothing was working but I’ve never seen so many rides down at one time at any park before.
For a first time visitor it made an absolutely horrible first impression. We left the park at 4 because we’d run out of things to do and the things we wanted to repeat had multi hour lines, likely because so few rides were running.
Looks like Disney will continue getting the vast majority of our money and we’ll use our UniAPs as an add on day to Disney trips.
