Guardians of the Galaxy Preview at DHS...

[Next Big Thing]

Neither party should off the other, considering:

1. Disney owns the most watched collection of channels (ESPN) on cable.
2. Comcast is the largest provider of network and cable entertainment in the United States.

Neither party holds all the cards.

And personally, I'd love to see Disney knocked down a peg because of ESPN.

You said yourself, Comcast is the largest cable provider. The day they decide to not renew ESPN, they will have A LOT of angry sports fans on their hands (not to mention bar owners), and they aren't going to point the finger at ESPN/Disney. They're going to point it directly at Comcast, their cable provider. If the negotiations lasted long enough without a renewal in this hypothetical situation, they'd end up with a lot of cancellations and people switching over to Dish/DirecTV who conveniently enough carry ESPN. BTW, customers switching from Comcast has absolutely no affect on Disney.

Who do you think holds the cards now?

 

[CJR]

The day they decide to not renew ESPN, they will have A LOT of angry sports fans on their hands (not to mention bar owners), and they aren't going to point the finger at ESPN/Disney. They're going to point it directly at Comcast, their cable provider.

This is 100% correct. Sports are the reason most people have a cable subscription in the first place, everything else is just a bonus. Without sports, most people would probably just rely on Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu for their entertainment needs. Disney will soon have a lot more of their newer content on Netflix (including Marvel films), by the way.

So taking that into account, I would say Disney has the slight edge in terms of cable negotiations. All in all though, both companies would almost certainly work with each other on issues like this as it's what's best for both of their businesses. Marvel's success is Comcast's success, especially considering all the Marvel shows and content coming/already here.

 

[The Crafty Veteran]

Didn't Disney and Comcast sign an extremely long agreement for the cable content/distribution side of things? Does it effect the theme parks anyway?

 

[danlb_2000]

Didn't Disney and Comcast sign an extremely long agreement for the cable content/distribution side of things? Does it effect the theme parks anyway?

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.c...or-disney-content/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

 

[Cesar R M]

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.c...or-disney-content/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

I find it funny that these two companies that seem to battle each other.. still depend on each other a lot (more in comcast's case)

I still wonder how the hell we went into this conversation about distribution rights, when we were talking about Guardians of the Galaxy.

 

[Lord_Vader]

This is 100% correct. Sports are the reason most people have a cable subscription in the first place, everything else is just a bonus. Without sports, most people would probably just rely on Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu for their entertainment needs. Disney will soon have a lot more of their newer content on Netflix (including Marvel films), by the way.

So taking that into account, I would say Disney has the slight edge in terms of cable negotiations. All in all though, both companies would almost certainly work with each other on issues like this as it's what's best for both of their businesses. Marvel's success is Comcast's success, especially considering all the Marvel shows and content coming/already here.

Yes, Disney and Comcast have a 10-year deal through 2022 that guarantees Comcast can and will carry a specific list of Disney owned media.

Content providers look at cable companies as if they are skimming from them, cable & satellite providers look at content providers as skimming from them. There is only so much money to be made from each subscriber, both sides want all of it therefore will fight for every penny. Right now the content providers hold the keys because there are lots of distribution options while the distributors are in a tough spot getting hit from all directions including the customers for constantly raising rates.