A Spirited Perfect Ten

[Cesar R M]

Plus Blu-Ray players have revocable decrypt codes so if a Studio decides they want to make all their blu-Ray content unplayable they can, No blu Ray players in my house

Thats why you could just.. you know, download a free program and decrypt them all.

speaking of bluray..
didnt the master decrypt code for both the PS3 and the bluray was hacked (or leaked?)

 

[GoofGoof]

Now, since I'm hopelessly lost in Oscar posts, I'd like to state an opinion on Disney and how it is conducting business in China vs. what was said in that story.

The columnist never claimed that Disney was engaging in anything illegal at all. None. He stated that graft is a huge issue over there and the government is cracking down.

That is fact and that illustrates one of the major issues in doing business in the mainland.

The columnist never mentioned anything about SDL's 'missing $800 million' ... I did here. Actually, so did others. And we've been doing so for many months.

I'm also not saying Disney paid anyone off, let alone to the tune of $800 million.

However, a fact of doing business in China is money going to officials. Obviously, Disney (no company, I would think) would pay off people to the tune of $800 million as an entry fee.

But ... is it fair to question ... to wonder if some of that money might have been used for unethical and illegal uses? Again, considering what is going on, I'd say yes, it is.

And, considering that an Op-Ed that that had pretty much nothing to do with the above topics was censored ... well, I have to wonder (again, I did play a journalist a few lifetimes ago) if Dissney, if Iger wasn't concerned that the topic was going to be raised.

I certainly hope it is at the shareholders meeting. I wasn't planning on going, but maybe it's about time for Bob to meet the Spirit. Someone needs to ask the tough questions even if his answer is a blowoff ''That is absurd. TWDC always conducts itself in the most ethical manner possible and I won't even dignify that by saying anything else!''

Because either Disney is guilty of something, Disney is afraid of something or Bob's ego is so large that he'd put his wife's position and credibility on the line.

I admit I don't know which of the above is true. But neither does anyone else here (unless Bob has decided to start reading here!)

Do you know who this writer is or what happened to him? It looks like all of his content is off the Huff Post site, not just the Disney related stuff. It would be pretty harsh if they fired him over this. From a quick Google search I couldn't find anything about him. It would be nice to be able to get his side of the story or read about it somewhere. From his previous article he seemed knowledgable about the Disney fan community or maybe he has been getting info from someone who was.

 

[Funmeister]

Does anyone have a link to the article they could send me in private?

 

[NearTheEars]

Nope Just inserting the blu Ray disc initiates a check and key update process, so just buying new content is sufficient to screw you over, it's why I don't have Blu Ray I don't want content that can vanish on a whim

So the code would be on a new disc you were to buy, which would trigger it?

I know you should never say never. But a studio will never render your legally purchased copy of a film. Not unless they want to face one of the biggest class action lawsuits in history.

Unless maybe somewhere buried in the fine print it says you are really only renting the content.

 

[ford91exploder]

So the code would be on a new disc you were to buy, which would trigger it?

I know you should never say never. But a studio will never render your legally purchased copy of a film. Not unless they want to face one of the biggest class action lawsuits in history.

Unless maybe somewhere buried in the fine print it says you are really only renting the content.

It's buried in the fine print that you have a 'license' to the content, I'd really like to see them try to revoke the content though it would be a plaintiff's bar full employment act.

 

[Frankie The Beer]

Comcast had their earnings call today, story here:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/02/24/comcast-2014-q4-earnings/23906839/

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-king-kong-universal-20150224-story.html

and

http://www.cmcsa.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=897872

In short, for the Universal parks, revenue was up 29.9% in the 4th quarter, mostly from Orlando. 17.3% for the entire year. Per capita spending went up 5.3% after Diagon alley. Park to park tickets are now are more popular than single park tickets.

The new Kong ride was mentioned (by name) for Islands of Adventure on the earnings call. Cap expenditure has gone up for the parks, and cash flow went up around 18% for the year and 37.6% for the 4th quarter.



Additionally from digging around, Cabana Bay was a huge hit, and weekends have been packed at it, and the rest of the week isn't doing too bad.

Important to note adjusted earnings per share for Comcast was up .77 cents which was in line with expectations. Disney's adjusted earnings per share was up $1.27 which blew away any and everyone. Comcast stock price based on this news has had a nice little gain of a little under a dollar, when Disney's peformance was reported the stock went up 7 dollars and has increased dramatically.

So before people want to make this out to be some huge win for Comcast, you still need to understand Disney's point of view they don't have competition, which so far still holds water. Like it or not.

 

[Darth Sidious]

Does anyone have a link to the article they could send me in private?

Disney CEO Fumbles Entry to China
Posted: 02/18/2015 4:45 pm EST

Sorry Mickey, they're just not that into you. Minnie, you either.

For that matter, you can take the whole stable -- the "Fab Five" of Walt Disney's animated creations -- and, despite a media machine that churns a very different story, China has largely been a land where the fabled wishes, dreams and magic of the Walt Disney Company and its brand have virtually no connection with the consumer. As valued as that consumer is in the economic theater of globalism, the iconic brand synonymous with America has little appeal and less traction among the newly seated audience in the Chinese mainland.

To its 'vanilla on toothpaste' helmsman, Robert A. "Bob" Iger, who has shown himself to be an able cobbler of assets but a less than visionary leader of the media colossus that is the Walt Disney Company, this troubling if known and growing headwind threatens to undermine the content-heavy but culturally aloof purveyor of demographically unshackled product. For in his zeal to expand its library of content, Bob Iger has drop-kicked the Disney moniker to enter new and expanding marketplaces only to position a product that runs well afar of the expectation of the Disney bounce.

In so doing, the once unrivaled status of the Disney brand has become a catch-all for entertainment and its associated byproducts that are increasingly a strange and sometimes conflicted ragbag of franchised acquisitions presented as some sort of media mélange for all ages and all palates. Or, as John Dreyer, the longtime and immediate past head of corporate communications for the Walt Disney Company, said upon the publication of the column Disney CEO Readies Magic Carpet for Exit, "Disney losing its Disney way."

With the company making its grandest play for a market that dwarfs all others, Disney has found itself adrift in a crisis of identity that breaches the foundation of the castle upon which an empire was built. For as turrets were raised, wings were added and a moat of meticulously positioned whimsy was filled in to expand the Disney footprint, something that looks decidedly more pedestrian than the fantastical inspiration for one of the world's most coveted brands has emerged.

Leverage has become the arch of entry into the Disney-verse, while the brand has been marginalized into a holding vehicle for assets that are worth more separately than that vested in the castle itself.

As Mr. Iger said at the 2013 Fortune Global Forum held in Chengdu:

I think the first thing you have to do is you have to obviously be aware of what your most significant brand attributes are. What makes your brand your brand? Why is it great? You have to focus on quality and on those attributes that, again, created the value in the first place. You can't look to cut corners. You can't look to make something with your brand on it that's any cheaper simply because it's going into a market that may not be able to afford it the way another market may have. You can't compromise in that regard. So it starts with what I'll call quality and a respect for an allegiance to the very brand attributes that created the value in the first place.
Now, considering Shanghai Disney is preparing to make its 2016 debut as Disney's first foray into the renminbi rich Chinese mainland after a less than stellar arrival in the former British colony of Hong Kong in 2005, there are lessons aplenty to learn from that delayed embrace and the long stalled entry into the single largest consumer market on offer to the world -- the whole of China.

Under Mr. Iger's stewarding, Disney has partnered with the Shanghai Shendi Group, an umbrella name placed on a panoply of government-owned companies created to facilitate Western investment as a massive anti-graft campaign is just now rattling Beijing and beyond, to introduce a Disney 'branded' park to those consumers. A flag in the ground for Disney. A flag that has been in the works since the prime of Michael Eisner's reign at Disney and one that nearly collapsed entirely by the summer of 2006.

Indeed, Mr. Iger had to leave the annual Herb Allen retreat for media moguls, tech tycoons and other scripters of society in Sun Valley for an unscheduled trip to Shanghai that day in 2006, scrambling to save face and leading to a denouement worthy of great scrutiny by any company -- especially those entities whose trade is in intellectual property -- wanting to enter China.

Or, as Dalian Wanda Group Chairman Wang Jianlin, whose real estate and entertainment empire is building its North American headquarters adjacent to the Beverly Hilton at 9900 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, said on the same panel at the Fortune Global Forum:

[W]e have so many Western companies in China, but you cannot simply replicate the Western ideas and philosophies in China. They need to adapt to the Chinese realities... So for Fortune 500 companies in China it's very important, it's imperative for them to learn traditional culture in China and how is it interrelated with the modern business culture.

Curiously though, the world beyond the berm is told the 330 million or so Chinese within a three-hour trip to the site on the other side of Shanghai's Pudong International Airport cannot wait to queue up for a boat ride on "It's a small world" or whatever Disney is offering up for its reported $5.5 billion marker. As, no, there will apparently be no attraction of that name at Shanghai Disneyland.

Not in China. Not in a country where Mickey, Minne and the rest of the gang are barely known. In a country where Disney might as well be Smith or Jones or Johnson. Well, maybe not that last one as Johnson & Johnson is actually a reasonably well-known brand throughout China.

The Walt Disney Company has a history of stumbling if not outright tumbling in its efforts to export Disney's brand of Americana. For reference, look no further than Euro Disney -- now known as Disneyland Paris -- and Hong Kong Disneyland. Of the latter, it is worth note that Disney has been known to Hongkongers from the early days of the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio. Yet, to this day, with a direct link by MTR line to points throughout Hong Kong, Disney is barely able to keep up with the brand devoid, geographically hemmed in and animal exhibit heavy Ocean Park in Aberdeen.

Over lunch earlier this month at Neptune's in the Grand Aquarium, Ocean Park Hong Kong CEO Tom Mehrmann, who began his career as a street sweeper at Knott's Berry Farm just up the road from Walt's original Disneyland, said, "Disney still has to explain to some of its guests exactly what a 'Disney Park' is. We don't have that problem."

To further illustrate this point, visit Disney's outpost on Lantau, a parcel of reclaimed land near Hong Kong International Airport, and you will notice a different Disney. Some call it 'Disney-lite'. Others refer to it as 'McKingdom'. Regardless, there is a definite feel of a diminished product -- of a diminished brand -- on stage for the public's consumption.

For, on a spit of land with an audience topping seven million attached by subway line having a familiarity and a kinship with the West, sits the real experiment of Disney's entry into the Chinese market. And there, on a recent day, at a performance of The Lion King in a theater designed for Disney's Animal Kingdom in Orlando dropped into the Walt Disney Company's first Disney branded park in China, the actors sought to lead the audience in a rendition of the hit tune from this classic of Disney's second golden age of animation: Hakuna Matata.

Hakuna Matata.
What a wonderful phrase.
Hakuna matata.
Ain't no passing craze.
It means no worries.
For the rest of your days.
It's a problem free philosophy.
Hakuna matata.

Arms raised high in the air, cast members -- on stage and off -- encouraged the capacity crowd to sing the infectious chorus. With lyrics blasting through the speakers and flashing on screens in the theater, they sought a simple singalong to the catchy and commercial hit written by Elton John and Tim Rice. Unmoved, the audience sat stone-faced. Child and adult alike.

Considering most individuals reading this are likely humming the tune or hearing it play as part of the soundtrack of their lives, that speaks poorly of Disney's penetration into the far less foreign landscape of Hong Kong. As for Shanghai, Mr. Iger continued on at the conference in Chengdu:

We're a brand that is viewed as good for me and good for my family. There are values to the Disney brand and what it stands for that have interested people all over the world. But, it's very, very important that while we bring Disney to a market we make sure that in that market it feels like, for instance, China's Disney.
In leaving the park on that recent evening, the dressed by and for Disney MTR cars filled with tired visitors exposed to, saturated in, that which is the Disney Parks experience offered up in Hong Kong. Looking to the left, to the right, all around, not one visitor had that uniquely American rite of passage positioned upon their head. Mickey ears. Not one.

And, in the second largest market for its product and the largest consumer market on the planet, Disney's Frozen, the highest grossing animated film ever having delivered over $1.27 billion in ticket sales and the fifth-highest grossing film of all time, earned little more than $48 million. Less than four percent of its global box office.

Welcome to China, Bob.

Gary Snyder is a member of the Redstone family, whose company, National Amusements, owns Viacom and CBS, among other media assets. He is an advisor on Western media and culture to China.

 

[EPCOTCenterLover]

Does anyone have a link to the article they could send me in private?

http://insightsandsounds.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-amazing-disappearing-article-disney.html

 

[Progress.City]

Roy Disney is alive. It's Roy Disney and Roy Disney who are dead.

Huh? Unless you're talking about about a third generation Roy Disney, what?!

 

[ParentsOf4]

Important to note adjusted earnings per share for Comcast was up .77 cents which was in line with expectations. Disney's adjusted earnings per share was up $1.27 which blew away any and everyone. Comcast stock price based on this news has had a nice little gain of a little under a dollar, when Disney's peformance was reported the stock went up 7 dollars and has increased dramatically.

So before people want to make this out to be some huge win for Comcast, you still need to understand Disney's point of view they don't have competition, which so far still holds water. Like it or not.

The numbers you mention are interesting when it comes to stock price but ...

In fiscal year 2014, Comcast's total revenue was $68.8B compared to Disney's $48.8B.

Executives I know typically don't look at stock price to decide if someone is a competitor.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Huh? Unless you're talking about about a third generation Roy Disney, what?!

Roy P. Disney is alive. He is the son of Roy E. Disney and therefore the grandson of Roy O. Disney.

 

[PhotoDave219]

The numbers you mention are interesting when it comes to stock price but ...

In fiscal year 2014, Comcast's total revenue was $68.8B compared to Disney's $48.8B.

Executives I know typically don't look at stock price to decide if someone is a competitor.

Yes well in a large part of America, if you want Cable TV you're stuck with Comcast. Or you go Dish. If you want to cut the cable cord and go internet based..... you're still paying Comcast. Essentially, theyre a Utility. Its like the old SNL Commercial with AT&T



(In full disclosure, They own my favorite Hockey team)

My point? They make their money off of basically being a monopoly.

 

[WDW1974]

A Spirited Tidbit of News (and Then Some Commentary):

Usually, I try and make sure to have 2-3 sources I trust when placing out news. But sometimes, well, that just isn't possible and you have to make a choice to trust a source and if the info passes the smell test, you run it.. In this case, I trust the source and the information passes that test.

Folks have wondered about what went on behind the scenes of this whole Iger/Mrs. Iger/HuffoPo story and wonder, like I did, what was going on.

Well, this is, as near as I can tell, the scoop.

After Willow Bay pulled the ''Disney CEO Fumbles Entry to China'' (BTW, there's a reason I keep typing that story headline out as it will come up in search engines) from the HuffPo and put out a libelous statement against the writer, an attorney for the Redstones contacted the HuffPo. They ordered the statement be removed immediately (and it was) and that the Op-Ed be put back up (that was refused). The attorney then ordered that all of the author's work be removed from the HuffPo immediately (and it was) as the work remains the property of the author and they didn't want the organization to profit in any way from them given the censorship issue.

That's what I can tell. Makes sense.

Just like ...

Willow's wonderful Oscar dress (BTW, why didn't Bob wear a Darth Vader or Luke Skywalker tie to make the show complete?) was worn literally to take attention on the Internet away from a story title and photo that even the Igers can't get scrubbed.

Go to the Twitverse. Amazing how almost every comment on Willow's dress begins with ''Disney CEO'' ... and hence, the HuffPo dead link and photo drop further down into, what the Igers hope will be, obscurity.

Now, I could argue that won't happen because we're talking about it today. I'm reasonably sure had the story been left alone that it wouldn't be a topic of discussion this week.

I'm hoping to be able to post some further info on this topic later tonight or tomorrow, but I can't guarantee it. I can tease it, though. It's not good for Disney, for Bob and for Willow ... or for USC.

 

[ParentsOf4]

Yes well in a large part of America, if you want Cable TV you're stuck with Comcast. Or you go Dish. If you want to cut the cable cord and go internet based..... you're still paying Comcast. Essentially, theyre a Utility. Its like the old SNL Commercial with AT&T

My point? They make their money off of basically being a monopoly.

Personally, I don't particularly care how Comcast or Disney make their money outside of Orlando.

Since this is a forum about WDW, I think we're more interested in theme park revenue in Orlando. Disney and Comcast both do not report this as a separate line item but I estimate WDW's Orlando revenue is roughly quadruple Universal's. In Orlando, Disney crushes Universal on hotel revenue.

 

[WDW1974]

I would like to interject here and kind of go back to a favorite topic in these Spirited threads. Once long ago Mr. Spirit had as a tag line that "Spirited change was coming" Sadly I don't see such a change. With the announcement of Chapek as head of P&R we see more of the same ( I know there is already a thread about this.....but it absolutely is relative to this discussion....more so then the Oscars). They are rearranging the deck chairs with more of the same. Setting it up for Mr. Bobs successor. Most of the top jobs are being filled with "company" people. The same ones that gave us....Disney Parks.....NFL.....A year of a million cuts. But we are supposed to be optimistic....give them a chance they say. I say we have seen this show before....

Well, I've said it before, but you could damage Disney, you could force them to answer for and to various things, you could express your power IF there was agreement by fanbois in the Twitverse to push things on the 'net. If suddenly #firewillowbay or #disneycensors or #disneybombsinchina were common, just to use the absurd situation of the last week, you can bet that Disney would have to put it's highly compensated response team into overdrive.

But you don't get that. You get the same cliques and fractured BS that assures TWDC that the status quo is just fine. What is trending today amongst fans? Are they still about price increases that only Tom Amity saw coming? Are the UNI ones frothing over because an attraction that we knew was coming 18 months ago finally got a shout out in an earnings call? Are they also crowing, just like the Disney ones did, about a cold multi-national media conglomerate putting up big profits like it means a damn thing to them? (HINT: Tom Williams and Co are just slightly more competent than their Disney compadres!) Are we talking how beautiful the new Hub with fake grass (don't you dare call it Astro-turf!) is going to be? I see MAGICal Steve posted 5-6 threads of small newsworthy items recently, are they talking about those?

The point being they NEVER get their stuff together. And as individuals or cliques or even followers of one web site, they don't amount to enough to make Disney sit up and take notice. You hurt Disney with ... powerful words ... and, obviously, they don't like the truth about how they are failing in China (maybe they are failing forward?) and they wake up when enough people get together that their social media hacks sit up and make a phone call from their cubicles saying ''We have a problem.''

Some of us are doing what we can behind the scenes in various places, in various ways, but at the end of the day, it has to be a collective effort.

Again, we have people here who want to ''wait and see'' how yet another exec who has never worked a day in his life in theme parks gets to run Disney's empire. That is a HUGE part of the problem.

I sometimes think I'll be my Dad's age before something meaningful opens in either the MK or EPCOT.

Remember Al Lutz?

He never would have gotten anywhere, even in those early 'net days, if folks kept saying ''Let's give Pressler a chance'' or ''Let's wait and see, Cynthia really seems to get it.''

The problem with both the Disney and UNI fan communities in general is they are like petulant children who only care about whatever their whine of the moment is. They don't get the big picture and they listen to others who don't get it either.

Many times I feel like I'd be more productive slamming my head against a wall ... and then Disney does something stupid and I realize just how open they are. I wish others got that.

 

[Nubs70]

But Disney has China. Never mind those magic bands investments nor that HP park attraction WDW has all of CHINA. Sounds good to investors but as time approaches for delivery will it be the game changer or another moderate success? If moderate success what can we buy to mask it? Star Trek, TCM, DC nah we will announce that we have sold MM to a group of Latin American Meat Packing Glitterati who have a weatherman for a boss.

Nice weave in of Floyd

 

[WDW1974]

Didn't see Birdman, but I can say the exact same thing about Grand Budapest Hotel or any Wes Anderson movie.

I didn't either.

I did see Grand Budapest and thought it was typically stylish and fairly engrossing. A great film, however, it was not.

My favorite film on 2014 might surprise you: Guardians of the Galaxy. But I didn't get to see any films from September on due to some family circumstances. Now, I damn well know GotG didn't deserve mention at the Oscars as popcorn films aren't what the Academy is there to honor. ...So, everyone I know who saw Birdman either loved it or hated it. When that happens I usually think the movie is OK, but nothing special. I suspect that may well be my reaction when I finally see it.

 

[WDW1974]

So Iger is implying Willow is his Yoda, so I guess he's saying he's Luke Skywalker. Man, is that guy's ego big!

Nah, what he is implying is ''FU (to the writer) I control the entire playing board.'' "My Yoda is bigger than yours!''

 

[WDW1974]

If any of us were promoted to that job you can guarantee we'd give PR a quote about having always loved Disney parks, or being thrilled to move to a unit with such promise and possibilities... something to give people hope, but there's nothing like that, the press release implies he's barely heard of the parks before.

''Wait, Mr. Iger... you are saying we have cruise ships and theme parks outside the USA?!?!''

 

[Nemo14]

''Wait, Mr. Iger... you are saying we have cruise ships and theme parks outside the USA?!?!''