WGA/SAGAFTRA Strike Discussion Thread | SAG Ratifies Contract

[SchumacherFTW]

16 minutes ago, ZeroHour said:

One of the interesting pieces to all of this is that the streamers are making more off the people they get to sign up for the ad supported plans, even at these higher prices for ad free, so that’s become the part of the business they most want to grow. 
 

Disney has definitely been hurt by trying to support and differentiate two different major streaming services in the US. I don’t think we’d be talking as much about their breadth of content if D+ had brought people The Bear, Only Murders in the Building, Justified: City Primeval, and the Futurama revival this summer. 

Yeah, D+ is a good deal here in the UK for sure. 

[Willowra]

1 hour ago, TwoMisfits said:

Why do I want Disney to collapse?  Pointing out large price increases can backfire is reality.  It's been backfiring lately in their parks.  It may backfire on their streaming,  Disney has been pushing price for the decade of Iger/Chapek, but lately, their quality has started to fall off.  Disney has always thought they were the King and could garner that price through rep of their past and current work (and the way they pushed theaters in the 2010s did work very well for them).  But eventually, that kinda strategy has limits.  I think this price increase is gonna be that limit.  They think folks will fall down to the commercial plans - I think they may just fall altogether.  And either way, they won't grow DOM.  

There is only little scope for growth for D+ in the US, and that is because D+ allows 4 screens per account, whereas Netflix allows only 1 screen on their cheapest plan. D+ has already achieved peak subscriber growth in the US, and the only way they can increase subscribers now is by convincing standalone Hulu subscribers to add D+ for an extra $2. That's hard to convince, as those Hulu subscribers aren't interested in D+ content. So the only way they can achieve profitability is by hiking the price and reducing operating expenses.

[Issac Newton]

 

 

[dobrevv]

16 minutes ago, Issac Newton said:

 

 

any way disney can stop them,i would be surprised at disney willing to pay their workers

[SchumacherFTW]

23 minutes ago, Willowra said:

There is only little scope for growth for D+ in the US, and that is because D+ allows 4 screens per account, whereas Netflix allows only 1 screen on their cheapest plan. D+ has already achieved peak subscriber growth in the US, and the only way they can increase subscribers now is by convincing standalone Hulu subscribers to add D+ for an extra $2. That's hard to convince, as those Hulu subscribers aren't interested in D+ content. So the only way they can achieve profitability is by hiking the price and reducing operating expenses.

That value proposition is exactly what the rest of the world is getting compared to the US D+. Hulu doesn't exist outside the US, probably time to fold it and just unify it in to the US D+ so it's the same globally. 

[Willowra]

5 minutes ago, SchumacherFTW said:

That value proposition is exactly what the rest of the world is getting compared to the US D+. Hulu doesn't exist outside the US, probably time to fold it and just unify it in to the US D+ so it's the same globally. 

If they unify it, would those D+ subscribers who aren't interested in Hulu content pay an extra $6–$7/month? I don't think so. They'll add Hulu content to D+ but will continue to provide standalone D+, Hulu, and Bundle services.

[Kon]

25 minutes ago, SchumacherFTW said:

That value proposition is exactly what the rest of the world is getting compared to the US D+. Hulu doesn't exist outside the US, probably time to fold it and just unify it in to the US D+ so it's the same globally. 

 

In Latin America countries, we have Disney+ and Star+ as two different streaming services. It's expensive to have both services (even as combo).

[Dementeleus]

3 hours ago, TwoMisfits said:

Is the grandfathering ending or will they let you keep it once October passes?

 

tbh I’m not sure, but I’ve already gone through one renewal and the price didn’t change (the intro offer was a 3-year deal).

[SpiderByte]

That adfree Disney Hulu bundle seems fantastic tho. Absolutely getting that in a couple months when my annual Disney+ expires.

 

I'm also excited for when they unveil the merged Disney/Hulu app. 

Edited August 28, 2023 by SpiderByte

[Ryan Reynolds]

lots of amex cards give $7 credit every month for disney bundles, so its a way to get cheaper

[Arlborn]

4 hours ago, Kon said:

 

In Latin America countries, we have Disney+ and Star+ as two different streaming services. It's expensive to have both services (even as combo).

Yeah, it sucks that they simply went ahead and created a completely new service(Star+) just for Latin America as a way to divide their content for us as well. I'm only paying for the combo at the moment because of some promotional prices I was able to get for it, but once that goes away I'll be thinking hard about whether I'll renew any of them.

[SpiderByte]

Trades don't have shit to talk about with the strike lmao

 

 

[dudalb]

On 8/27/2023 at 12:32 PM, Porthos said:

 

This is starting to get pretty off topic, but the other area D+ shines is in its documentaries/NatGeo material.  The Beatles: Get Back and Light and Magic (ILM) are two examples. 

 

Just those aren't exactly things that get people to bang down the door to watch.

A lot of people here  probably never go much beyond the SW and Marvel sections of Disney Plus.

I watch an awful lot of the NatGeo shows. Agree about the Disney documentaries; I think "MIckey:Story of a Mouse" was really good and was pleansetly surprices that it did not shy away from the darker side  of the history of Disney's Icon (the racism in some of the early cartoons) and how poor Mickey has been misused by Disney. Iger was the first CEO since Walt who allowed Mickey to actully be funny again.

And how they explored how Midkey as a icon has changed was interesting. ...the "Micky Mouse goes to Vietnam" anit war cartton they shows segments of was fascinating.

Edited August 28, 2023 by dudalb

[dudalb]

9 hours ago, Kon said:

 

Yeah. I was confused when people were saying Disney+ only focus on Marvel/Star Wars.

 

They have been trying a good amount of other shows in Disney+. Unfortunately, these don't seem to be enough popular.

I think it is more a case that some people never really go much beyond the Star Wars/Marvel section.

[Reddroast]

https://variety.com/2020/artisans/actors/netflix-signs-royalty-agreement-for-german-series-1203535333/

[SpiderByte]

 

[21C]

On 8/27/2023 at 1:15 AM, ChipDerby said:

 

What are they spending on their streaming side that costs that much money

The infrastructure to run a service as big as HBO MAX, Netflix or Disney is actually insanely, insanely expensive, for starters.

[cooldude97]

5 hours ago, Reddroast said:

https://variety.com/2020/artisans/actors/netflix-signs-royalty-agreement-for-german-series-1203535333/

an article from 3 years ago?

[ChipDerby]

36 minutes ago, 21C said:

The infrastructure to run a service as big as HBO MAX, Netflix or Disney is actually insanely, insanely expensive, for starters.

 

Nah, it ain't 

[21C]

2 hours ago, ChipDerby said:

 

Nah, it ain't 

Do you think that running a website and an app that holds thousands if not millions pieces of video ready to stream globally at high resolution comes cheap? There's a reason Youtube barely has any viable competitors, Twitch is unprofitable. The infrastructure to run these things costs from a billion to billions. Dunno what the hell you think these things do if you don't think that. They aren't operating a wordpress website. Content-making is also expensive as hell. 

Edited August 29, 2023 by 21C