Apparently they don’t understand why people cut the cord.
Not to contradict, but I just heard on NPR a few weeks ago that research appears to show that piracy has more to do with convenience than with cost. People really don’t like having to figure out where to find shows, they want to go to a single location to get everything they want.
Whether that is true or not, shrug.
It’s two groups.
So cable-cutters are absolutely price sensitive. This will make Disney content more expensive since they are pulling it out of other services like… Netflix.
Then you have the pirates, they like they’re stuff in one spot sure, Disney+ is yet another network/cable/channel service that is not connect to the large in one place services.
It seems like this approach will mostly displease both. Increasing Hulu and then introducing another challenge that might even cost more than now, seems like the worst both worlds.
I buy it. None of these services are really particularly expensive yet, except maybe HBO and that’s a legacy from cable. But figuring out where to legit stream things (if you even can) is way harder than punching a name into a pirate automater.
I should find that piece on NPR but maybe I’m obtuse about that predicament, I just don’t agree. As a Roku user, or heck, even on the smart TV, they have simply become, “channels.” We very much get the concept of different content on different offerings. Roku even has an overall search to find what offerings have something specific you’re looking for.
I don’t think I’d ever pirate something because I can’t find it between the offerings. Rather, that it isn’t on ANY offering, right?
As a former cable user, I know exactly what happens when everything is in one place. The costs for that go up, and up, and up, and up. So again, maybe I’m not in the group NPR was talking about, but no, I don’t want an all-in-one, per-se. I want the content that isn’t anywhere at all … somewhere. Still largely absent, tons of sports content, tons of large movie collections by single studios, etc. We want the choice of cable, all the content, but in streaming form. And not even a small percentage of it is there at all.
NOTE: What’s the elephant in the room here is that it is very much BECAUSE of that lack of content, or skyrocketing price for others to stream it, that they have turn created their own content entirely. Both Netflix and Amazon are all over that.
So Disney thinks that they can come in with their content, add it to an existing provider and people will flock to that at a higher price. And again I say, they don’t understand cable cutters at all.
Honestly I get better RoI from giving a Twitch streamer $5 a month than probably any other service. 8+ hours a day, nearly every single day, all new stuff.
I should honestly cancel Netflix and only resub when I want to watch something. Amazon has other benefits, including paying for a Twitch streamer for a whole year. Disney will give me… what exactly? If anything it just makes me more likely to cancel something like Netflix than “expand” into whatever they’re trying to sell me.
Disney’s position for a lot of people is basically: “Ok you know that stuff you have and already pay for? How about… you pay more for it? On a new service that will probably be terrible for at least a year.”
How about… no thanks?
Disney’s pitch is: do you have children under 10? Thank you for your money, see you again next year.
As someone who fits this, pretty much.
When it launches the odds of us picking it up are very high.
This is what my sister days. My youngest nephew is huge into Disney, not just the movies but the shows. He’ll watch Mickey Mouse Fun House… all day.
Disney for now has apparently decided it is all in on Hulu. Hard to see Comcast staying in, if that’s the case.
But it still raises a bunch of questions:
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Does Disney buy out Comcast’s 30% of the service?
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Does Comcast sell its 30% to someone else?
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Is Disney’s ploy of holding onto Hulu for show to raise the price because they know Comcast would love it as a platform for NBC/Universal universe streaming, and might be willing to buy out Mickey’s 70% share?
With Disney controlling 60% of hulu, they have quite a big hold over Comcasts content… Perhaps thats the ultimate goal here?
Also with 2 services running, they can charge users twice for their content by spreading it over both providers. Perhaps the hulu content will be more “traditional” tv content and the Disney+ content will be restricted to their big brands: Animation, Pixar, Marvel & Star Wars?