I don’t see the difference in what you say here and what I’ve been saying. You were the one to bring up YouTube (Mr. Beast). The only comparison is the competition for dollars and eyeballs.
When it comes to streaming, I think the only way for Disney to win in the long run is to settle into its place as high-quality content at the leading edge of long fandoms. The good news is that Disney knows this, and is positioning itself accordingly. The only major problem I see with their plan is that investor impatience is going to shorten their runway to figure it out and get to profitability.
You're not going to see what you don't want to see no matter how much I type.
To be more accurate.. he started getting 'big' in 2016 and 2017... so he's at 5 years now.
My point is a big thing doesn't change it's just a thing and not an industry upon itself. That's why I drew the comparison to an individual show. They have a following, they have exposure, they have all kinds of activity around them, but ultimately they tend to flame out and be replaced by something else.. whatever the newer 'thing' is.
And like many things.. they can be HUGE without being everything. Example... Duck Dynasty. Huge.. never seen it. And they are already history... replaced by other bearded dudes doing other things.
How many gamers on twitch/etc have come before him.. and how many will surpass him in the future. He's a mile marker along the way - not a disruptor himself.
MrBeast isn't changing the media industry... youtube and it's revenue models are. That's the difference. MrBeast and the others before him are just fuel in the engine... and they will be be consumed while the engine happily takes on other sources and people will continue to use the engine and it's benefits. They are not unique to MrBeast.
It's the difference between hanging your hat on a CONCEPT vs an instantiation. The concept here is direct to consumer self-publishing that can generate enough revenue through indirect ads to actually staff and create TV-level production on a recurring basis. It's not about MrBeast. It's about youtube as a platform.
And before tik tok, it was vine, etc. Much of this space is too immature to be a media disruptor. It's trendy... it's where eyeballs are.. and that's why it's being monetized for ads... but don't just count the numbers of subs and views... count where the money is going.
You are pointing to types of content.. I'm pointing to the viable PLATFORMS and PRODUCTION and DISTRIBUTION.
5 more years from now little jimmy may never sit in front of a TV for 5hrs a day, but he'll still have more than one app.. and with more than one app, that means more than one platform and distribution.
It's the platform and how they enable content to be produced and promoted that carries all these creators. Youtube plus ad markets made self-publishers able to get go from 0 to critical mass without investors or buy-in from the cabal. Platforms like tiktok, etc are just fleas that will die out when the next fad hits. They are examples of the babysteps.. not the beachhead that is here to stay like youtube.
Just like above, I can type until I'm blue in the face, you're not going to see the point I'm trying to make that you're refusing to see.
I never said it was about MrBeast. You
quoted me here saying it wasn't about him.
I was poking fun at you for being an old fart who hadn't heard of him in my initial post. I'm an old fart who has - that's all.
You can talk about platforms and fleas all you want.
What is your debate?
That Disney has more staying power than MrBeast and Tik-Tok?
Of course they do.
Who cares?
How does that help Disney with their subscriber numbers and the revenue they need to generate to produce a season of Willow when it fails to produce the viewership numbers they were expecting?
How does it help them continue to reach a level of sustained profits on subscribers when they have to continue to produce expensive content to keep viewers paying when their collective competition out there - not Youtube or MrBeast or Tik-Tok or any Twitch streamer, or gaming platform but ALL OF IT, is ad based, has a one-time cost, or is straight up free and churning out literally thousands of hours of content for every hour of content Disney is producing?
When your kid you regret giving a smart phone to is staring at their screen while you're driving to the store, what are they watching?
A 30 minute Disney show or a 5 minute clip by
anyone on
any platform that isn't Disney?
It's the eyeballs that are in short supply.
How does Disney start to charge more while spending less when the seeds of what can replace MrBeast and Tik-Tok together can be launced for less than 1/100th of what Disney paid for Fox?
... And when there is no barrier to entry today to prevent dozens if not tens of thousands of various creators and platform hopefuls from churning out their own content and platforms to continue splintering the market?
Most of them can come and go and still turn a tidy profit for the people who started them - so what?
They suck and Disney doesn't?
Is this a game of what individual has the most marbles?
Again, it's the eyeballs that are in short supply and if Disney has to pull an HBO Max because they can't find any other way to make the numbers work, I think they're going to be in trouble.
But I also don't trust they can continue to produce expensive content needed to keep viewers hooked for life when they already have huge lulls in attractive content for a lot of people today that make people less than happy at the current price point.
I mean, I'm not saying that I expect Disney+ to shut down in abject failure but I think it's more likely to end up as a necessary part of the company's future survival far more than it's ever going to be their next big revenue generator and at this point, I don't think the cable business model is ever coming back, no matter how much traditional media companies want it to.
I think that halcyon ship has sailed.*
*you can take that as the word and its meaning or as a snarkly reference to another Disney endeavor - both will work
