Disney's Streaming Services: Disney+ (and Hulu, ESPN+, Star, & hotstar)

[BrianLo]

I always forget that this board skews to an American perspective.

Face it; America got the short end with the need for Hulu and Disney+ to still be separate.

Disney+ in Canada with the Star tile is content palooza, with Fox / FX galore. It is great.

Yes, International markets like Canada demonstrate the full purpose of the acquisition. We have an actual full quadrant, rounded, streaming offering here. One that I can make an argument is stronger than Netflix many days.

I really don't think Iger made a bad acquisition, he just wasn't allowed to run away with another steal as competitors finally took notice that Disney severely underpaid for three other prominent acquisitions. Those other acquisitions were also much more straightforward. People tend to distill these companies down to a few big movies, but Fox was a major media company, not a small studio. Hence the 30 billion dollars in things Disney shed that people don't even seem to consider or even remember. It was so much bigger than some Marvel rights, Avatar and the Simpsons.

I keep pounding the drum that the company needs to do a better job explaining some of that to reframe the deal to their favour.

 

[Disney Analyst]

Yes, International markets like Canada demonstrate the full purpose of the acquisition. We have an actual full quadrant, rounded, streaming offering here. One that I can make an argument is stronger than Netflix many days.

I really don't think Iger made a bad acquisition, he just wasn't allowed to run away with another steal as competitors finally took notice that Disney severely underpaid for three other prominent acquisitions. Those other acquisitions were also much more straightforward. People tend to distill these companies down to a few big movies, but Fox was a major media company, not a small studio. Hence the 30 billion dollars in things Disney shed that people don't even seem to consider or even remember. It was so much bigger than some Marvel rights, Avatar and the Simpsons.

Nailed it. Fox was certainly more than some movie IP. FX is the equivalent of an HBO, and pushes out some amazing content. The Bear was fantastic!

I can tell you, if this Netflix password sharing thing happens, we cut it out completely.

 

[BrianLo]

Nailed it. Fox was certainly more than some movie IP. FX is the equivalent of an HBO, and pushes out some amazing content. The Bear was fantastic!

I can tell you, if this Netflix password sharing thing happens, we cut it out completely.

I am a wasteful human being and will continue to empirically hold onto them all (albeit I've never done Crave). I am exactly the mindless ongoing subscriber (?since 2010) that probably represents the majority of the streaming base.

That said I was increasingly disenfranchised with Netflix for a while there, but they had a really great last quarter in terms of shows/movies I liked. Probably better than Disney's. They (Netflix) need to lean up a bit and start curating their library moving forward.

 

[Disney Analyst]

I am a wasteful human being and will continue to empirically hold onto them all (albeit I've never done Crave). I am exactly the mindless ongoing subscriber (?since 2010) that probably represents the majority of the streaming base.

That said I was increasingly disenfranchised with Netflix for a while there, but they had a really great last quarter in terms of shows/movies I liked. Probably better than Disney's. They (Netflix) need to lean up a bit and start curating their library moving forward.

I’m increasingly growing tired of Netflix’s 1 season library, where they start a new show and cancel it. Their library of original content is becoming a joke.

We use Crave, but mostly for Drag Race and HBO stuff.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I always forget that this board skews to an American perspective.

Face it; America got the short end with the need for Hulu and Disney+ to still be separate.

Disney+ in Canada with the Star tile is content palooza, with Fox / FX galore. It is great.

Wut?

They're not the same price. You pay more than we do.

US Disney+ is $8.

Canadian Disney+ with Star is $12 CAD (roughly $9 USD).

US Disney+ with Hulu is $10.

 

[Disney Irish]

Another important final point is that Disney actually paid nothing for the acquisition in the end. Thanks to divestments it was all achieved via stock. Peltz cannot see that the debt load issues were strictly a covid phenomenon and not related to the acquisition.

Exactly right, had the pandemic not happen any remain 21CF debt would have been paid off already. Nobody really batted an eye at the debt load back when it first was acquired, so why care now? Nothing really has changed, they are paying down the pandemic debt every quarter and in short order it'll be back to pre-2020 levels.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I can tell you, if this Netflix password sharing thing happens, we cut it out completely.

Come on, you're a grown man.

 

[_caleb]

I’m increasingly growing tired of Netflix’s 1 season library, where they start a new show and cancel it. Their library of original content is becoming a joke.

We use Crave, but mostly for Drag Race and HBO stuff.

Yeah, I think this is the downside to some content production strategies streamers seem to be using. They seem to aggressively watch the metrics, which leads them to:

• Quickly (prematurely?) greenlight projects,
• Spend too much (maybe the data makes them over-confident)
• Cancel/pull the plug too early (before a show/series really finds it’s audience)

The result seems to be lots of promising shows left with one season.

 

[Disney Irish]

Wut?

They're not the same price. You pay more than we do.

US Disney+ is $8.

Canadian Disney+ with Star is $12 CAD (roughly $9 USD).

US Disney+ with Hulu is $10.

Its been quite a while since I've been in school, but if my math is correct $10 per month is more than $9 per month.

So Canadians are getting more content for a $1 less because of the combined D+/Star than the D+/Hulu bundle that we in the US have to get in order to get the same content.

 

[Disney Analyst]

Come on, you're a grown man.

And we share accounts with multiple family members to cut down costs. We use the in-laws Netflix, they use our Disney+, etc.

If Netflix wants to end that, it’s fine, but we would not pay for it on our own

 

[Disney Analyst]

Yeah, I think this is the downside to some content production strategies streamers seem to be using. They seem to aggressively watch the metrics, which leads them to:

• Quickly (prematurely?) greenlight projects,
• Spend too much (maybe the data makes them over-confident)
• Cancel/pull the plug too early (before a show/series really finds it’s audience)

The result seems to be lots of promising shows left with one season.

Exactly. And how do you market that?

Join Netflix and enjoy the incredible originals we produce, just don’t expect to find out how any story ends…

 

[Disney Irish]

Yeah, I think this is the downside to some content production strategies streamers seem to be using. They seem to aggressively watch the metrics, which leads them to:

• Quickly (prematurely?) greenlight projects,
• Spend too much (maybe the data makes them over-confident)
• Cancel/pull the plug too early (before a show/series really finds it’s audience)

The result seems to be lots of promising shows left with one season.

Welcome to the Netflix series model, same as the Network TV model with a new shiny coat of paint.

 

[_caleb]

Exactly. And how do you market that?

Join Netflix and enjoy the incredible originals we produce, just don’t expect to find out how any story ends…

I know! I imagine showrunners will eventually stop creating multi-season story arcs and start treating each series as a standalone story. This would give studios more flexibility and at least let them provide some closure to a story.

We're already starting to see this in some series being treated as longform episodic films.

A good example of what this might look like is The Mandalorian, where The Book of Boba Fett could essentially serve as The Mandalorian, season 3.

But if Disney does indeed license content to other platforms, I imagine they will want to continue to the season-end cliffhanger strategy to try to get people to come to Disney's platforms for subsequent seasons.

I just want a story to have a beginning, a middle, and a satisfying conclusion!

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Its been quite a while since I've been in school, but if my math is correct $10 per month is more than $9 per month.

So Canadians are getting more content for a $1 less because of the combined D+/Star than the D+/Hulu bundle that we in the US have to get in order to get the same content.

That is not correct.

Canadian D+ has more content than American D+ alone, but less content than American D+ and Hulu combined.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

And we share accounts with multiple family members to cut down costs. We use the in-laws Netflix, they use our Disney+, etc.

Yikes.

 

[_caleb]

Welcome to the Netflix series model, same as the Network TV model with a new shiny coat of paint.

I know! And as a fan of streaming, I do like the promise in Disney being able to go "deeper" into cultivating fandoms by serving niche audiences with niche content (vs. network's tendency to go after the biggest audiences possible). But they've got to get costs way down and look beyond "tv shows" to supplemental, related, and fan-created content.

In my opinion, AMC's The Walking Dead was on the right track with their approach:

• the main series (TWD)
• TWD graphic novel runs
• a self-contained spinoff series (Fear the Walking Dead)
• a teen drama set in TWD universe (TWD: World Beyond)
• A fan watch party show (Talking Dead)
• TWD webisodes
• TWD mobile video games
• Fan forums on AMC.com
• Additional content (screensavers, documentary, soundtracks, etc.)

Several additional spinoffs are in development, largely due to what analytics show fans like most/best about the series (characters, storylines, etc). Costs are kept in check relative to the audience for each piece of the franchise. They have built up quite a cult following, and the franchise is very profitable.

Hoping for further innovation in this direction by Disney.

 

[Disney Irish]

That is not correct.

Canadian D+ has more content than American D+ alone, but less content than American D+ and Hulu combined.

I'm not counting the Hulu TV side, especially the TV content that requires access to the LiveTV sub which is becoming more and more required. I'm talking about just pure Disney owned (which includes 20th Century) content, its the same. So no they pay a $1 less to get the access to the same Disney owned content on the combined D+/Star than D+/Hulu.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I'm not counting the Hulu TV side, especially the TV content that requires access to the LiveTV sub which is becoming more and more required.

I'm not talking about Hulu+Live.

I'm talking about just pure Disney owned (which includes 20th Century) content, its the same.

No, it isn't. You're just wrong on the facts here.

So no they pay a $1 less to get the access to the same Disney owned content on the combined D+/Star than D+/Hulu.

No.

 

[Disney Irish]

I'm not talking about Hulu+Love.


No, it isn't. You're just wrong on the facts here.


No.

Please educate me, as I have access to both D+/Hulu and D+/Star so would be curious on what if any is not there, what Disney owned content (including 20th Century) is available on D+/Hulu that isn't on D+/Star?

Edit - I will also add that Disney has been adding a lot of the Disney owned TV shows to Star recently as well, including new episodes, to put it on the same footing there as Hulu. So basically when a new episode is released to Hulu its released to Star around the same time if not the exact same time. So even that content is also now pretty much the same.

 

[_caleb]

I'm not talking about Hulu+Live.


No, it isn't. You're just wrong on the facts here.


No.

What do you get out of posts like this? Please discuss the points being made. I find it interesting.

What are the content differences between Disney+/Hulu (no LiveTV) and Disney+/Star? I don't have access to Disney+/Star, so I don't know. It does seem, from what I've read here, like they're very similar, just incorporated into one app.