4 ms·

The main cost for Netflix is content, not engineering. They spend billions developing new shows. Disney has tons of existing material they can just monetize, so

by mizzao 7y ago

The main cost for Netflix is content, not engineering. They spend billions developing new shows. Disney has tons of existing material they can just monetize, so huge advantage there.

dhagz 7y ago
And from the look of it, EVERYTHING is there. So far only a couple of things I haven't been able to find, which were either super-niche (an old Christmas sing-along video I watched as a kid), or Song of the South.
- chrisan 7y ago
  Almost everything, some films are still under contract and may be a while before D+ can in house them. Solo and The Last Jedi are still under Netflix for now
- scrumbledober 7y ago
  There are some things that should remain in the Disney vault...
  - odkamkfn 7y ago
    Song of the South is a pretty good movie, and people should stop lying about it.
paxys 7y ago
Disney isn't going to be able to sustain the subscriber numbers they want just by offering their back catalog, regardless of how good it is. They need to constantly release new content to keep people hooked, and shows like The Mandalorian and all the MCU ones are going to be as expensive to produce as what Netflix spends.
- statguy 7y ago
  >> They need to constantly release new content to keep people hooked They already do that.
endorphone 7y ago
"Disney has tons of existing material they can just monetize" To be clear, Disney is pulling the content from existing monetizations -- including Netflix -- to try to monetize it on their own platforms. This isn't free real estate. There is a very real cost. And Netflix is going to put the money they aren't paying Disney to produce their own content and buy up other content. Disney is playing a very risky gambit here.
- freeflight 7y ago
  > Disney is playing a very risky gambit here. Disney has way deeper pockets than Netflix, they can afford to play the long game, spending their revenue on gaining market shares.
  - denormalfloat 7y ago
    Disney is in a tough spot since they also pay dividends. Companies typically don't ever reduce their dividends, which leaves Disney unable to spend that cash on their growth.
- mcv 7y ago
  Good point. Disney is primarily a content creation company, not a technical infrastructure company. According to other subthreads in this discussion, they treat engineers as second-class employees, requiring insane work hours for little pay. If they actually want to compete with Netflix, they have to run Disney+ as a real tech company, not as something they do on the side. Disney+ can be a fantastic success if Disney gets it right, because they do have lots of excellent content. But if they don't take the engineering side seriously, it's going to fail. If Disney just wanted to focus on making good movies and TV shows, which clearly is what they're best at, dealing with Netflix would have been perfect for them. If they want to be a tech company instead, they really need to follow through and commit to that.

by mizzao 7y ago

The main cost for Netflix is content, not engineering. They spend billions developing new shows. Disney has tons of existing material they can just monetize, so huge advantage there.

dhagz 7y ago

And from the look of it, EVERYTHING is there. So far only a couple of things I haven't been able to find, which were either super-niche (an old Christmas sing-along video I watched as a kid), or Song of the South.

chrisan 7y ago
Almost everything, some films are still under contract and may be a while before D+ can in house them. Solo and The Last Jedi are still under Netflix for now
scrumbledober 7y ago
There are some things that should remain in the Disney vault...
- odkamkfn 7y ago
  Song of the South is a pretty good movie, and people should stop lying about it.

paxys 7y ago

Disney isn't going to be able to sustain the subscriber numbers they want just by offering their back catalog, regardless of how good it is. They need to constantly release new content to keep people hooked, and shows like The Mandalorian and all the MCU ones are going to be as expensive to produce as what Netflix spends.

statguy 7y ago
>> They need to constantly release new content to keep people hooked They already do that.

endorphone 7y ago

"Disney has tons of existing material they can just monetize" To be clear, Disney is pulling the content from existing monetizations -- including Netflix -- to try to monetize it on their own platforms. This isn't free real estate. There is a very real cost. And Netflix is going to put the money they aren't paying Disney to produce their own content and buy up other content. Disney is playing a very risky gambit here.

freeflight 7y ago
> Disney is playing a very risky gambit here. Disney has way deeper pockets than Netflix, they can afford to play the long game, spending their revenue on gaining market shares.
- denormalfloat 7y ago
  Disney is in a tough spot since they also pay dividends. Companies typically don't ever reduce their dividends, which leaves Disney unable to spend that cash on their growth.
mcv 7y ago
Good point. Disney is primarily a content creation company, not a technical infrastructure company. According to other subthreads in this discussion, they treat engineers as second-class employees, requiring insane work hours for little pay. If they actually want to compete with Netflix, they have to run Disney+ as a real tech company, not as something they do on the side. Disney+ can be a fantastic success if Disney gets it right, because they do have lots of excellent content. But if they don't take the engineering side seriously, it's going to fail. If Disney just wanted to focus on making good movies and TV shows, which clearly is what they're best at, dealing with Netflix would have been perfect for them. If they want to be a tech company instead, they really need to follow through and commit to that.