Ultimately, as the Ankler's Sean McNulty said in his newsletter this morning, the powers that be are trying to make streaming more like cable by replicating the twin revenue sources of advertising and customers paying for things they don't watch. Next summer, when the HBO Max/Discovery+ merger takes place, Warners Discovery is going to make HBO Max subscribers pay extra for crappy reality shows and Discovery+ subscribers pay extra for what some may see as immoral HBO programming with dirty words and violence glorifying improper behavior and alternative lifestyles. Hell, people are now saying that the HBO brand has been sullied by "FBoy Island" and "Big Bang Theory" reruns (conveniently forgetting "First and Ten" and "Real Sex").
At least streaming is closer to that a la carte pricing scheme that supposedly people wanted from cable and the systems didn't want to give them because 57 channels-and-nothing-on made more money for them. But the people in charge can't seem to get away from it, even as cable subscriber rolls drop and drop. Mark Jeffries [email protected] On Tue, Aug 16, 2022 at 11:38 AM Adam Bowie <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Tue, Aug 16, 2022 at 4:46 PM Mark Jeffries <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> However, I saw an Irish TV commercial for Disney+ featuring "Only Murders >> in the Building," which is not exactly family fare. I would guess that >> Disney+ in foreign markets is running "Dopesick," "Pen15" and "The >> Dropout," so they're already doing it over there. If the feeling is that >> the overseas audience doesn't consider Unca Walt and what he stood for as >> sainted as we do, well OK. But everywhere else in the world Disney+ does >> have grownup content and they have made the adjustments here so that you >> can watch the two "Deadpool" movies on D+ uncut--and Hulu exists in only >> one country--us. I think the merger is inevitable. >> >> > Yup - we get "Pam & Tommy" on Disney+ in the UK, as well as Deadpool, > Dopesick and the rest. Disney does half-heartedly use "Star" branding at > the top of programmes to differentiate them. But essentially the heavy > lifting is done when you set up profiles. So if you have kids and want to > age-gate what they can see, you can. A quick test in my Disney+ account > shows that I can choose 0+, 6+, 9+, 12+, 14+, 16+ or 18+ on any profile. I > suspect this functionality is already in US Disney+ since there's a world > of difference between Mickey Mouse and Avengers Endgame. > > Honestly, I think Disney keeping adult brands separate is a non-issue. > They can keep sub-brands so that a show is FX, Hulu, Twentieth Century, Nat > Geo or whatever. That gives audiences some expectations as to what you're > going to get. Netflix copes perfectly well doing this. But yes, a smart kid > is going to be able to get around all of these locks as they always have > been able to. Knowing the D+ password is about all they need. > > There's no question in my mind that Disney and Hulu have to merge. There's > no reason not to. They'll bundle them together in a forced manner and bump > up the price. When "Star" launched in the UK, Disney straight-up raised the > price and said, "Hey, here's a load of extra stuff..." That also removes > the need to have two separate tech stacks and apps being developed. Having > a single - global - tech stack and app is much easier for them to manage. > For me, it's only a question of when and not if. > > > Adam > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAD_sJGC-ECG93Hbcu6Y57jnKU1j6hNgGUGz3buxZOM6LwTmuwg%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAD_sJGC-ECG93Hbcu6Y57jnKU1j6hNgGUGz3buxZOM6LwTmuwg%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAJ_uKi9Grv9qwF-fJOtt8%3Dp6kgd5eOHbOuxarXx-AF7tVBZV8A%40mail.gmail.com.
