Streaming Services (business / market / service, not content-focused)

[Zorral]

It looks as though Warner's believes it's own library of content will fill the gaps, the same stuff that it has been cycling for years already through all the other streaming services.  The Matrix some more!

[Zorral]

Back to Cable the Past!

David Zaslav Suggests Rival Streamers Should Bundle Together: If We Don’t Do It Ourselves “It Will Be Done To Us”

https://deadline.com/2023/05/david-zaslav-streamers-max-bundle-1235371789/

Quote

 

Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav thinks consolidation is in the cards for streaming platforms, but not necessarily through traditional M&A. “There should be a consolidation, but it is more likely to happen in the repackaging and marketing of products together. That’s what I think makes sense. We have to, as industry, reach that point,” he said during a Q&A at a media conference today.

Mergers carry regulatory risks and can take years to close. In a fast-changing industry, “Who knows what the world looks like?”

His comments at the MoffettNathanson event come as WBD prepares to launch Max next week, a combo of HBO Max – that name will disappear — and Discovery+ content. Disney last week announced plans to combine Disney+ and Hulu in one app. Executives fighting to attract new subscribers and reduce churn all agree that bundling really helps. Yet overall the streaming environment remains fragmented for viewers. ....

 

 

[SpaceChampion]

I was thinking separation between presentation and production, like with the theatre chains & studios, would help.  Essentially a bunch of global and local streamers picking a la carte according to their algorithms from each studio's content servers.  Might end up with genre-based apps, but be able to reach everyone who want to see something on one app or another.

[SpaceChampion]

“Republicans Are Back On The Air” On CNN, Cheers Warner Bros. Discovery Chief David Zaslav

https://deadline.com/2023/05/cnn-republicans-warner-bros-discovery-david-zaslav-1235371510/

Apparently he'd racist (said a number of racist things to animators) and extremely anti-LGBTQ too, hates animation, and cancelled animation series not for business reasons but to get rid of LGBTQ content.

https://www.reddit.com/r/television/comments/13ogk0r/comment/jl4c7uv/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

 

[Ran]

2 hours ago, SpaceChampion said:

cancelled animation series not for business reasons but to get rid of LGBTQ content.

This is nonsense. He cancelled Looney Tunes cartoons, the Caped Crusader cartoon, and so on. Animation is expensive and I think evidence shows that the shows that were cancelled are not profitable, and Discovery took on huge debts to buy WB and the slashing has been pretty across the board.

He bitched that WB funded "talk to the empty chair" Clint Eastwood's flop Cry Macho. The attempt to paint him as some sort of right wing goon is silly. His personal political donations are almost entirely to Dem PACs or Democratic politicians.

 

Edited May 22 by Ran

[Rhom]

4 hours ago, Ran said:

This is nonsense. He cancelled Looney Tunes cartoons, the Caped Crusader cartoon, and so on. Animation is expensive and I think evidence shows that the shows that were cancelled are not profitable, and Discovery took on huge debts to buy WB and the slashing has been pretty across the board.

He bitched that WB funded "talk to the empty chair" Clint Eastwood's flop Cry Macho. The attempt to paint him as some sort of right wing goon is silly. His personal political donations are almost entirely to Dem PACs or Democratic politicians.

 

I always find it laughable when people try to crusade against some businessman/celebrity/etc for whatever reason.

Never forget the old adage, "The right wing and the left wing are both attached to the same bird."

[Rhom]

The banner ad at the top of the page tells me that Max will start streaming tomorrow.  As an existing Discovery Plus subscriber, I don't know that I've seen anything telling me about what will happen to my service tomorrow.   

Although, as I type this, I remember that it is one of the services I created a new Gmail account for our family to sign up for stuff... and I never check those emails.  There's a real possibility I suppose that there is vital information there.  Perhaps I need to go look at that.

[Ran]

34 minutes ago, Rhom said:

The banner ad at the top of the page tells me that Max will start streaming tomorrow.  As an existing Discovery Plus subscriber, I don't know that I've seen anything telling me about what will happen to my service tomorrow. 

Per reporting I've seen, Discovery Plus will continue as a separate service at least for a time, so there's nothing you need do at this juncture.

[Zorral]

9 hours ago, Ran said:

He cancelled Looney Tunes cartoons, the Caped Crusader cartoon, and so on.

HBO Max, er, in a few hours, MAX, has several animation channels, as well as the D.C. hub, etc.  Far too much as far as I'm concerned, since I don't watch any of them. But I don't have kids either, and other people like this stuff, so why not please them?  Having only a single thing strangles the whole thing.  But with these kinds of moves going on cross the board in the biz, Imma going to be canceling at least three services the moment I can. There's less and less being made I have any interest in watching.

 

 

Edited May 22 by Zorral

[Luzifer's right hand]

Took a while but I had to pick a household now.

I cancelled Netflix as planned because I can get multiple other services for the same price as I have no interest at all in the basic resolution plan.

I might return if they ever offer a reasonably priced 4k plan but new content has been declining in quality anyway.

Edited May 23 by Luzifer's right hand

[Zorral]

There is no better way to get me to resign from streaming services than insist I pay to watch commercials.  The first reason, second reason, third reason, etc. I haven't owned a television all my life and didn't watch television until there were dvd rentals and streaming was commercials.  And thus the anodyne content, that was dominance.

https://deadline.com/2023/05/warner-bros-discovery-cf-max-hbo-discovery-1235378004/

Quote

 

WBD CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels sees advertising on HBO content as a major untapped revenue stream as the compay relaunched its HBO Max streaming service yesterday as Max, a shift he described as going “so far, so good.”

“HBO is such an amazing and such a powerful brand and has never been exposed to advertising,” he told a J.P. Morgan media conference. “The view of the market is coming around, and I think advertising is accepted today as … a form of monetization for very, very premium content.” Mercedes has a sponsorship deal with Succession and, “we started opening up some pre-rolls, but there are a lot more opportunities. It’s nothing we push right now, because of where the market is. But we are in the very early innings when it comes to advertising.” . . . .

 

Um -- around here a pre roll is a blunt/joint for sale in Washington Square Park.

Edited May 24 by Zorral

[Rhom]

HBO never had commercials... because you paid for HBO.

I've always accepted advertisements as the access fee for otherwise "free" programming.  But there's nothing worse than commercials inserted into a recorded program that wasn't designed with those breaks in mind.

[Myrddin]

I launched the new Max last night and was excited to see... well, nothing new was of interest. I did try to find some historical documentaries or something, but my google-fu failed (or there was nothing added of interest).

On the one hand, Max is starting the consolidation we've all talked about. On the other, all the channels I didn't really miss from cable are mixed in with my HBO offerings... 

[Werthead]

Max's unilateral change to the credits of their shows, breaching multiple legal agreements, saw the Director's Guild of America basically threaten to join the strike action. The DGA joining the strike would effectively shut down almost all film and television production currently ongoing, at colossal losses to the studios. Unsurprisingly, Max is apparently already backing down and restoring the credits to the way they were previously.

The DGA is still in its own negotiations with the studios and might decide to strike anyway. I doubt this made them any more inclined to stay off the picket lines.

[Rhom]

4 minutes ago, Werthead said:

Max's unilateral change to the credits of their shows, breaching multiple legal agreements, saw the Director's Guild of America basically threaten to join the strike action. The DGA joining the strike would effectively shut down almost all film and television production currently ongoing, at colossal losses to the studios. Unsurprisingly, Max is apparently already backing down and restoring the credits to the way they were previously.

The DGA is still in its own negotiations with the studios and might decide to strike anyway. I doubt this made them any more inclined to stay off the picket lines.

So wait... what were they doing?

[Werthead]

Just now, Rhom said:

So wait... what were they doing?

They lumped the creatives behind each show into a singular "Creator" tab, rather than listing individual writers, directors and producers.

[Zorral]

15 minutes ago, Myrddin said:

ll the channels I didn't really miss from cable are mixed in with my HBO offerings... 

Exactly.  I hate that shit and don't see why I'm paying for it.  That is why people subbed to HBO in the first place, coz all that shit wasn't there.

[BigFatCoward]

On 5/23/2023 at 9:14 PM, Luzifer's right hand said:

 

I cancelled Netflix as planned because I can get multiple other services for the same price as I have no interest at all in the basic resolution plan.

I might return if they ever offer a reasonably priced 4k plan but new content has been declining in quality anyway.

Yeah. Why do I need to pay for 4 licences to have 4k. We only need one licence. Why can't they have a 1 licence 4k option for about £8-10?

[Heartofice]

Watching Dan Murrells video about some of the shows being taken down off Disney and Hulu, my first reaction is ‘who the fuck did they think was going to watch these shows??’

With something like Disney+ I seem to be completely unaware of 96% of their content, and just looking at some of these things being take down, shows about display cakes or some shit, you have to wonder if the plan wasn’t to spunk as much money as possible to create Coooooonteeent! Lots of content. And no concern as to whether anyone would watch it.

I don’t see streaming services as the same as network tv, I don’t see the point of ‘filler’ for a streaming service, whereas tv clearly needs to fill space with cheaply made crap. Maybe others use these services differently but I subscribe to watch specific shows, not background fluff. 
 

Would be interested in seeing viewing figures for these shows, they cannot be good though. So it seems like quality of quantity would be a positive change 

 

[Toth]

Students yesterday asked me out of the blue about the last movie or series I watched... and I realized I haven't watched any for years. That caused me to think about why and I have a certain feeling that streaming services in general killed all my motivation to do so because I don't see a reason to pay money to get access to stuff I will complain about anyway. It's just so much of a hassle nowadays with so many competing services with each only having one maybe possibly interesting show and lots of garbage and it just simply doesn't seem worth it to me. If want to know what's up with Andor or Lower Decks, I end up skimming cropped out scenes on Youtube to judge whether it's worthwhile and then move on.

Really weird...