In recent months, I have put up several posts that covered the upcoming “Streaming Wars” in the video world. There will, I assure you, be more to come. In one of the posts, I talked about how a major threat to Netflix would be if Disney and Apple formed some kind of alliance. Perhaps, they would produce content on a joint venture basis. Or, Apple, with their deep $200 billion + in cash at certain times, would take a minority position in Disney (5-15%) which could backstop the Mouse House if the launch of Disney + was rocky for a few years. Well, on Friday, the 13th of September (sic), Disney CEO Bob Iger, resigned from the Apple board of directors. The business press cited conflict of interest as Disney + would be competing directly with Apple TV +.
If I were Reed Hastings at Netflix or players at Comcast, Amazon or Hulu, I would be breathing a large sign of relief. An Apple/ Disney alliance of any kind would be beyond formidable.
So, where does leave us? As mentioned above, I will put up some posts on this topic in the weeks and months to come. As it looks now, I would say that Apple could be the short term loser in this scenario. They are getting lots of press regarding their new series with Jennifer Aniston, Renee Zellweger and Steve Carell and Steven Spielberg’s commitment to Apple TV +. Yet, developing a wide array of fresh content will take some time (they have the money!). So, by not joining forces with Disney, Apple is passing on the leader in video content globally. Disney has several platforms and franchises that cannot be replicated or developed overnight.
So, as I write, I would say that Apple TV+ will have pretty tough sledding for a while. If they are committed for several years, they may get it right and there is no question that they have the financial resources to ride out early losses. Also, their $4.99 per month subscription fee undercuts both Disney and Netflix nicely which should generate some early trial. The danger is that if there is not enough good content at launch some people may walk away saying that it is not worth $4.99.
The games are about to begin before Thanksgiving. We will be in for very interesting times in the media world.
If you would like to contact Don Cole directly, you may reach him at doncolemedia@gmail.com
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Interesting and fun times in the streaming world. Back in the day we thought the syndication wars were fun but this trumps all of that! Whoda thunk it? Seinfeld commanding big bucks as did Friends, etc. Original content necessary but, to your point, Don,got to have something to fill the void. #reruns! Thanks for a thoughtful post.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Patt. I wish that I were 25 again for a lot of reasons but it would be great fun to be actively involved in this quasi-revolution.
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