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Full disclosure: I’m overwhelmed with the sheer number of things I need to subscribe to watch my favorite shows. Netflix for Orange Is The New Black, Hulu for The Mindy Project, Amazon Prime for Catastrophe and HBOGo for Veep (No, I don’t watch Game of Thrones and I won’t let you shame me about it). And now the folks at Disney are making moves that may cause me to add yet another service or two to my never-ending menu.
During a quarterly earnings call yesterday, Disney Chairman/CEO Bob Iger revealed what Decider calls a “massive strategic shift in the company’s content distribution strategy, one that aims to leverage the unique affinity that consumers have for the Disney brand name and the love that sports fans have for ESPN.” Meaning: goodbye Netflix, hello Disney’s own streaming services.
For sports-lovers, an ESPN streaming service will debut early next year that will allow viewers to not only watch over 10,000 events that are not on the “regular” ESPN channels, but also let them pick specific sports leagues to watch. The move comes as ratings and revenue for ESPN have been in freefall due to people cutting the cable cord. I still have cable, but given my love of 30 for 30, I’m definitely subscribing if the series gets its own stream where I can fulfill my goal of watching every episode of the series.
And for those devotees of the mouse house…sad news for those of you that get your fix via Netflix. Iger also announced during the call that Disney will be pulling all of its movies and shows off that streaming service and starting its own TV-and-movie service that will feature “Disney- and Pixar-branded titles, as well as original movie and TV series productions and some library product.” The service will kick off in 2019 with Toy Story 4 and the sequel to Frozen… meaning that literally everyone is going to subscribe.
Smart thinking, Disney. .
[via Decider]
Image via Shutterstock
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Jenna Crowley
Jenna used to be known as 2NOTBrokeGirls, but then one of the girls actually went broke, so she's struck out on her own. Jenna spends her free time saving the world, one sorority girl at a time (usually while wearing yoga pants), questioning why she decided to get a doctorate, documenting her love of all things cheese related, and hosting the new PGP podcast Don't Take It From Us. You can ask her anything you want about football, using your boobs to get what you want, and pizza at @JennaLCrowley on Twitter or via email at JennaLCrowley@gmail.com.
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Bad news for parents, mediocre news for everyone else.
I’m more excited at the fact that you’ll now be able to watch ESPN without a cable sub. I personally won’t be dropping Comcast because of the great deal I have where I only pay like $40/month for standard cable, HBO and Showtime, but I’m sure a lot of other people will drop their subs, leading to lower prices from cable companies. Live sports is the last thing competitive advantage that cable has and once that’s gone, those subscription fees should plummet in an attempt to keep their subscribers from cancelling.
Overall, this is a great move for everyone.
I think I hate you a little bit for this. My roommate and I decided not to get cable this year. It’s not too bad, worth saving the money. We have Hulu, Netflix, and HBO hooked up to our amazon fire stick and we go to sports bars to watch games. Works fine for us and saves a ton of money.
How much do you guys pay each time you go to the bar though? If a cable sub is like $70/month, that’s basically 6-7 drinks.
Usually just get a beer or two. I don’t think we go often enough to be spending that much.
So combined you’re basically spending slightly less for those 2 beers each than you would for a monthly cable sub. So in reality, it’s not THAT much less money. But then again, watching a big game at a bar is generally much more fun than watching at home.
Explain hope you got this deal, please.
Comcast was running a special in my area for $90/month for cable and internet. I have my own modem so I don’t pay that monthly fee and I have TiVo so my monthly fee for all 3 TVs in my apartment is $10 a month ($12.50 a month to TiVo less $2.50 Comcast credit).
Standalone internet from both Comcast and a local fiber provider is $60/month so I value the marginal cost of cable TV at about $40 a month.
First of all, I’m jealous of your cable bill. Second of all, completely agree about live sports. Only reason I have actual cable instead of just watching things online. Interested to see what happens since I think most leagues now have their own streaming service for out of market games and a lot of local tv affiliates (our local Fox Sports does this) have their own streaming service for web and apps for live games. Wonder if they’ll all be willing to give up the revenue for that to sell to a third party that controls all live sports regardless of if you’re “in-market” or not for the tv broadcast.
So now instead of paying $100 for cable, we will just pay $100 over multiple streaming channels. The cycle has begun
I’m liking that there are so many places to stream TV and movies and that they are all no commitment. It’s really good for sports when you only have to pay for the sports channels in during the season and cancel after the season ends. But I think we will soon get to a “too many cooks in the kitchen” scenario. Eventually, there will be some start-up that comes along that you pay for that aggregates all your preferred streaming sources into one place and the cycle will begin again. Sling tries with this concept, but with the current cost on top of an Internet package, it’s the same as, or more expensive than cable. I’m 26 and assuming that the cigarettes I smoked in college don’t come to get me early, I will have a subscription or contract with a company that is exactly like a cable company today but over the Internet.
all the more reasons to ramp up my job search or pray for a raise in my salary
Guys, this means Heavyweights will no longer be available.
but are we still gettin Defenders so we can watch Loras Tyrell attempt to act while Mike Colter has to put tha team on his back?
Jesus I didn’t even think about Marvel shows, Disney don’t you dare fuck with my superheroes.
CNET reported that Marvel shows will stay on Netflix.
Not entirely related, but Disney literally has the best marketing team ever. Toy Story 4 AND Frozen 2? They’re getting the older generation who grew up with Toy Story and the younger generation with Frozen.
My niece is going to be so upset
I’m genuinely shocked you can openly admit you like the mindy project
I have no shame.