Disney and Universal: Two very different paths

[Figment2005]

You mean like that show building that is now really visible behind the Haunted Mansion.

You mean because of recent construction that hasn't allowed the foliage to grow in? Remember when they redid the foliage blocking the backstage area of Everest and everyone pitched a fit? Yeah, that is completely blocked from view again. Know why? Because they weren't finished yet! Okay, I feel better now.

 

[EpcoTim]

Remember Blockbuster?

If you don't, they were a video rental chain that dominated the video rental market. Sure, you had a couple other video rental chains up and about, but Blockbuster in their hey-day dominated.

Then Netflix came about, did the same thing, but they were cheaper, better, had as good a selection, the only thing different in their business model was you had to wait for your movies in the mail, but guess what, people didn't care.

Blockbuster did nothing about Netflix and when they did it was too late. People got tired of late fees.

Netflix was king for a couple years and got arrogant and tried to change the way they do business and expected the public to follow suit.

The public said, "Hey, whats that red box in my supermarket? Wow, they have movies and games, the newest releases..."

My point is, and Iam sure someone will try to use my analogy towards the theme parks but will not be as clever unfortunately, but the point is, something better is always right around the corner and the world of cable television is hampered by just what they show on their channels, like say programming from, oh, let me guess, Disney?

ESPN?

What would happen if Disney told Comcast they could no longer have ESPN as a channel? How many people would dump Comcast? Comcast is only a cable provider, and based on the fact they win worst customer service awards year in year out, it kind of makes you wonder how long they can actually be effective in that capacity. So much so, I know of absolutely no brokers who would recommend Comcast as a long term investment. If you know of one, let me know mmmk? Still think those same people paying 100's a month will keep paying that without the channels Disney provides?

Sadly, and I know this hurts some people for some odd reason, Comcast can only survive by what Disney gives them, and if Disney decides to take those scraps away, it just don't matter how many phases of Potter there will be in Universal Orlando. Disney holds all the cards here, like it or not.

But then again, this scenario has not happened yet...Wonder if it has been thought about...


Jimmy Thick- Charter for me thank you.

First off, Comcast (the cable provider) is an evil company much in the image of your stereotypical awful black-hearted corporation.

Blockbuster failed, but they, much in the spirit of some of our other favorite corporations, were a slow moving dinosaur. They tried to adapt to the online game, but it was a half hearted miserable attempt. The sad thing is, they had the foundation laid to be bigger and better than Netflix and Redbox combined. But they, along with Dish Network, dropped the ball on that big time. Too cheap and scared of Wall St to spend the money needed to conquer, too slow and dimwitted to follow through with a plan that would have kept them relevant.

You say Comcast can't survive without Disney, but thats a two way street. Comcast has direct pipelines into millions of peoples homes. In some areas they are the only cable and internet provider. How they got away with that I don't know, but they did. If Disney drops them, yes Comcast will suffer, but so will Disney. Try explaining to your advertisers that you lost 20+ million potential viewers. You lose that many viewers and ESPN is no longer the tops in viewership. Disney loses its ability to charge advertisers the high dollars they do.

Toss in the NFL and the fact that Comcast and Disney both have their hands on the contracts for nationally televised games and it gets real ugly. Now it makes no sense for Disney to drop Comcast. You're just handing all those viewers right over to Comcast. Or to the local games. If we use the TWC/CBS debacle as a benchmark, than we can see that millions of people did not flee TWC services just so they could watch Big Brother and Showtime. It hit a point, as football season started, that TWC realized it had to do something. CBS won out in the end, but TWC didn't have its own NFL contract.

Who knows, maybe Disney could crush Comcast in the long run. It could be the other way around too. That would be a battle for the centuries, but one that will most likely never get played out.

 

[Fairybuzz]

No, those two were free floating. The others are too big to allow the possibility of operator error. Can you imagine what might happen?

also like I did as a little girl on JC, they often let kids come up and steer the boats to give them a fun expirience. They certainly wouldn't do that if they were free floating

 

[Jimmy Thick]

Comcast could survive on their Movies On Demand and Internet services alone.

Movies on Demand?

What if Disney pulled their library of Movies on Demand from Comcast?


Jimmy Thick- Excuses excuses, the harsh world of business is compelling yet absolute.

 

[Jimmy Thick]

You say Comcast can't survive without Disney, but thats a two way street. Comcast has direct pipelines into millions of peoples homes. In some areas they are the only cable and internet provider. How they got away with that I don't know, but they did. If Disney drops them, yes Comcast will suffer, but so will Disney. Try explaining to your advertisers that you lost 20+ million potential viewers. You lose that many viewers and ESPN is no longer the tops in viewership. Disney loses its ability to charge advertisers the high dollars they do.

Comcast cannot survive without Disney or other content providers. Disney would more than likely be considered the lead dog when it comes to content. Saying Comcast is the only game in town is worthless if Comcast don't have channels to sell.

If Disney did drop Comcast, Disney would simply make their channels cheaper for other providers, or finance a startup to takeover the spots where Comcast is the only provider, Disney could even become a provider themselves for all I know, they have the cash and knowledge. Its not the two way street you're trying to paint here, Disney owns this scenario and is reason to believe we will one day get Marvel characters in Florida sooner than later.

Everything else is irrelevant.

But as I have said before and will say again, ask any broker which company is the better long term investment between Disney and Comcast, not a single one will recommend Comcast.

Not one.

Jimmy Thick- Disney stock 70 dollars...Comcast 50 dollars...

 

[Disneyhead'71]

I'm pretty sure Disney is more afraid of Comcast dropping them than Comcast is of Disney pulling out. ESPN is Disney's cash cow and the thought of it being dropped from over a third of the country's TVs would knee cap TWDC. Comcast has them by the short hairs while kicking The P&R division up side the head.

 

[Jimmy Thick]

I'm pretty sure Disney is more afraid of Comcast dropping them than Comcast is of Disney pulling out. ESPN is Disney's cash cow and the thought of it being dropped from over a third of the country's TVs would knee cap TWDC. Comcast has them by the short hairs while kicking The P&R division up side the head.

Nope. Don't work that way for content providers, especially popular content providers.

Do a little research.


Jimmy Thick- NFL Network history?

 

[marni1971]

Correct... that's the view from the service road that loops around. You can marginally see the back when you hang on the far right of the parking lot. But those facts don't hold people back from always pulling out that view as an example of bad views at disney

Is it still visible from Western Way?

 

[marni1971]

You mean because of recent construction that hasn't allowed the foliage to grow in? Remember when they redid the foliage blocking the backstage area of Everest and everyone pitched a fit? Yeah, that is completely blocked from view again. Know why? Because they weren't finished yet! Okay, I feel better now.

Not really. The mansion show building that's been visible from the mansion queue for the last two years.

Just sayin'

 

[Disneyhead'71]

Nope. Don't work that way for content providers, especially popular content providers.

Do a little research.


Jimmy Thick- NFL Network history?

Umm, I work for Brighthouse. And I am not a cable installer. Pixie dust addled simpletons should really just stick to discussing things that they actually know about like "the best cupcake in the WORLD!"

 

[Figment2005]

Not really. The mansion show building that's been visible from the mansion queue for the last two years.

Just sayin'

Awe, thanks for shooting me down Martin.

 

[marni1971]

Awe, thanks for shooting me down Martin.

Not intended. It's become a particular personal bug bear when it could easily be fixed. Doesn't help the time spent looking that way at Little Leotta.

 

[sshindel]

I'm pretty sure Disney is more afraid of Comcast dropping them than Comcast is of Disney pulling out. ESPN is Disney's cash cow and the thought of it being dropped from over a third of the country's TVs would knee cap TWDC. Comcast has them by the short hairs while kicking The P&R division up side the head.

If Comcast dropped ESPN, their subscribers would switch over to an alternative provider in a heartbeat. I don't think Disney would sweat it in the least, because Comcast would buckle in no-time to the outrage of it's customers.

 

[Disneyhead'71]

If Comcast dropped ESPN, their subscribers would switch over to an alternative provider in a heartbeat. I don't think Disney would sweat it in the least, because Comcast would buckle in no-time to the outrage of it's customers.

But Comcast wouldn't just drop ESPN. They would drop ESPN, ESPN2, ABC, The Disney Channel, Disney XD, ABC Family, and Disney Movies On Demand.
Content is cool, but you don't **** with your distribution network.

 

[sshindel]

But Comcast wouldn't just drop ESPN. They would drop ESPN, ESPN2, ABC, The Disney Channel, Disney XD, ABC Family, and Disney Movies On Demand.
Content is cool, but you don't **** with your distribution network.

But that further's my point. Could Comcast even begin to compete with competitors without any of those products? Not close! People would jump ship to the nearest content provider that had those networks on them. A company like Comcast is already in a tenuous place right now, when content is available through SO many different distribution mediums, that a hit THAT large would have the potential to do serious damage to their subscribership. Not just with other cable providers, but with the million other alternative distribution methods that are coming online, Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, their own web presence, etc.

 

[Disneyhead'71]

But that further's my point. Could Comcast even begin to compete with competitors without any of those products? Not close! People would jump ship to the nearest content provider that had those networks on them. A company like Comcast is already in a tenuous place right now, when content is available through SO many different distribution mediums, that a hit THAT large would have the potential to do serious damage to their subscribership. Not just with other cable providers, but with the million other alternative distribution methods that are coming online, Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, their own web presence, etc.

They wouldn't have to worry about that because Disney would back down.

 

[sshindel]

They wouldn't have to worry about that because Disney would back down.

Well, if the negotiations with Dish network are any indication, we have precedent that it would be the distribution network that will indeed blink first, as they did, and as Time Warner did with their CBS blackout:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...n-with-disney-avoiding-espn-abc-blackout.html

 

[EpcoTim]

Comcast cannot survive without Disney or other content providers. Disney would more than likely be considered the lead dog when it comes to content. Saying Comcast is the only game in town is worthless if Comcast don't have channels to sell.

If Disney did drop Comcast, Disney would simply make their channels cheaper for other providers, or finance a startup to takeover the spots where Comcast is the only provider, Disney could even become a provider themselves for all I know, they have the cash and knowledge. Its not the two way street you're trying to paint here, Disney owns this scenario and is reason to believe we will one day get Marvel characters in Florida sooner than later.

Everything else is irrelevant.

But as I have said before and will say again, ask any broker which company is the better long term investment between Disney and Comcast, not a single one will recommend Comcast.

Not one.

Jimmy Thick- Disney stock 70 dollars...Comcast 50 dollars...

Comcast has more subscribers than the next 3 largest cable providers combined. Comcast is the pipeline Disney uses to get its content out there. Disney does not have the means, talent, nor ability to drop Comcast and immediately drum up 22+ million potential customers. Making channels cheaper for other providers (plenty of local, regional and national carriers already have Disney) makes little to no senses for Disney. Financing a start-up would take years to plan out and configure let alone deploy. Not going to happen anytime in the near future.

EpcoTim- You can take the garbage to the curb, but its not going anywhere without a truck.

 

[Goofyernmost]

I picture you as Epic Beard Man. Find the YouTube video you'll thank me

Either way you look at it, it comes out to Insane Bearded Man. But...thank you anyway!

 

[sshindel]

Comcast has more subscribers than the next 3 largest cable providers combined. Comcast is the pipeline Disney uses to get its content out there. Disney does not have the means, talent, nor ability to drop Comcast and immediately drum up 22+ million potential customers. Making channels cheaper for other providers (plenty of local, regional and national carriers already have Disney) makes little to no senses for Disney. Financing a start-up would take years to plan out and configure let alone deploy. Not going to happen anytime in the near future.

EpcoTim- You can take the garbage to the curb, but its not going anywhere without a truck.

How many of those 22 million potential customers would start looking at alternative content providers if the headline "Comcast drops Disney/ESPN/ABC" went across the newswire?
Every day content becomes more and more the driver. Right now, Disney Junior is the ONLY thing that keeps me with my cable provider (not Comcast by the way). If I could get Disney Junior easily (and I stress easily) in an alternative, say on Amazon Instant, or Netflix, I'd have my service cancelled in a millisecond.