Digital streaming is the wave of the future. With the advent of Netflix, Amazon and Hulu, these streaming services have monopolized the television and movie markets by providing direct access to the consumer through wifi.
They’ve even complicated the theatrical distribution market because why would you venture out to a movie theater when you can experience the same content from the comfort of your own home?
But Disney announced one gigantic move that should make Netflix, Amazon and Hulu shaking in their boots.
Disney is the most gargantuan studio in Hollywood history and it’s not even close.
It dates back to its conception in the 1920’s when they invented the most iconic cartoon character in history, Mickey Mouse.
Capitalizing on gigantic cartoon movies like “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” “Dumbo,” and “Anastasia,” Disney bought up properties like the end of a Monopoly game where the player who owns Boardwalk and Park Place has suddenly eaten up every set of properties on the board.
Disney owns Marvel. They own Pixar. They just bought Fox’s movie studio (not Fox News). Disney owns the rights to “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones.”
And if you didn’t know this, they also have a controlling stake in Hulu.
So what is their new devious plan?
Disney just announced they will have their own streaming service called “Disney+” where you can stream their entire catalogue for a low price of $6.99 a month.
Who is going to compete with that?
This is a war brewing between Netflix and Disney – where the other major studios like Sony, Warner Bros. and Paramount won’t be able to compete – and keep in mind that the 5th major studio in Hollywood, 21st Century Fox, was just bought by Disney.
And Disney is offering all of their content for nearly half the price of Netflix. Also, Netflix, right now, carries a lot of Marvel movies currently and they will lose all of those movies once Disney+ lands on November 12, 2019.
The thing that makes Disney+ its biggest advantage is its archive and Netflix knows this which is why they’ve borrowed billions of dollars to produce original content in order to compete with Disney.
Hulu and Amazon have some original shows but they’re not cranking that content out like Netflix does. And Disney’s strategy is to simply buy up studios – libraries of content – to exclusively show on their streaming app. Expect Netflix to take the same strategy.
You shouldn’t be surprised if Netflix attempts to buy lower seed production companies who own a lot of content outright like Dreamworks, Relativity Media, The Weinstein Company, New Line Cinemas, etc.
The future of the film and television is all about streaming and although Netflix and Disney will ultimately dominate the industry just like AT&T and Verizon dominate the cell phone service industry, it should be interesting to see which becomes the bigger conglomerate in the next decade.