5 ms·

The great cancellation: why megabucks TV shows are vanishing without a trace

16 points by mgbmtl 3y ago

MattGaiser 3y ago
> In May, Disney+ announced a content removal plan designed to cut US$1.5bn worth of content, meaning it substantially reduces the company’s value, giving it a lot less tax to pay. This really seems like something that should not be permitted. You can just take something off from a streaming platform and use that as a reason to write down its value?
- lathiat 3y ago
  In an era where Disney is also increasingly not making physical media available, some of these shows now have literally no legal copies. As the Disney+ streaming service was the only place some of these shows were ever available. Disney is no longer releasing any bluray or other physical media in Australia and other markets are sure to follow suit: https://thedigitalbits.com/columns/my-two-cents/072523-1400 https://thedigitalbits.com/columns/my-two-cents/072523-1400 Its hard not to see this as a media long game, similar to software licenses, you'll have no possible way to own anything. That also seems to open up possible stronger enforcement on pirated copies of movies from streaming services since there is no legitimate way anyone could have had such a copy. Both topics also discussed on the Linus Tech Tips "WAN Show" podcast this week: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VIeSXvzyIE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VIeSXvzyIE "Disneys' Ruining Movies"
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - deafpolygon 3y ago
    Basically, the streaming equivalent of "The Vault".
- hedora 3y ago
  It really shouldn’t be allowed, but, at the very least, if they’re writing off the show on their taxes, they should have to release it into the public domain.
- Arnt 3y ago
  You can. Assets are yours to to use or waste. You can go to your wardrobe, pick out your newest clothes and throw them away. You can pull out your wallet and burn all the bills. You can rm -rf ~, delete every project on your github account, etc. None of this is forbidden. You can leave your well-paying job, which reduces your tax bill and isn't forbidden. You're not required to act in such a way as to earn more or pay more tax.
  - latexr 3y ago
    > You can pull out your wallet and burn all the bills. (…) None of this is forbidden. Depending on where you live, it might be. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_burning#Legality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_burning#Legality
  - rasz 3y ago
    So I can paint 'Mona Free Moneya', value it at $1Billion and then burn it for a tax write-off, right?
    - Arnt 3y ago
      Yes, you can. The net tax effect will be about -$5: ① Purchase paint and canvas for $5 ② Create $1B asset and add it to your accounting ③ Write down asset to zero. You can claim a $5 loss and reduce you tax burden by $1 or something like that, so the scheme only costs you $4. Clever people try to do more sophisticated versions of this around the end of a year. Add an asset in December, write it down in January, or the other way around. That can make sense if the rules for the two years are different, or if there's some reason to pay the tax in 2023 instead of 2024, or…
  - MattGaiser 3y ago
    But they aren't destroying the asset in this case. They are just not using the asset. The show is presumably not destroyed. They are just not showing it. You couldn't put clothing in another wardrobe and claim that as a loss, could you? Could you claim moving all your code to Bitbucket devalued it as Bitbucket is harder to use and fewer devs know how to use it?
throwaway67743 3y ago
"why don't you have Netflix?" I hear very often, now I have an article to point at finally!
move-on-by 3y ago
It seems like a new golden age of piracy is on the horizon. How else will consumers respond? It was so nice to stream back in the early days of Netflix streaming- so much easier than pirating. And, there was a huge library to choose from. Eventually licensing and content owners got involved and broke it up into a bunch of streaming services. But, still not a huge inconvenience if you have 2 or 3 services there is still access to a ton of content and people have largely moved on from piracy. But if the content is literally not available? How does that not make people reacquaint themselves with piracy options? Once piracy becomes normalized again, why continue paying for those 2-3 streaming service that don’t have what you are looking for anyways? It seems really short sighted and driven by bean-counters. Maybe no one believes a VPN and piracy is simple enough for the average streamer to undertake?

16 points by mgbmtl 3y ago

> In May, Disney+ announced a content removal plan designed to cut US$1.5bn worth of content, meaning it substantially reduces the company’s value, giving it a lot less tax to pay. This really seems like something that should not be permitted. You can just take something off from a streaming platform and use that as a reason to write down its value?

lathiat 3y ago
In an era where Disney is also increasingly not making physical media available, some of these shows now have literally no legal copies. As the Disney+ streaming service was the only place some of these shows were ever available. Disney is no longer releasing any bluray or other physical media in Australia and other markets are sure to follow suit: https://thedigitalbits.com/columns/my-two-cents/072523-1400 https://thedigitalbits.com/columns/my-two-cents/072523-1400 Its hard not to see this as a media long game, similar to software licenses, you'll have no possible way to own anything. That also seems to open up possible stronger enforcement on pirated copies of movies from streaming services since there is no legitimate way anyone could have had such a copy. Both topics also discussed on the Linus Tech Tips "WAN Show" podcast this week: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VIeSXvzyIE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VIeSXvzyIE "Disneys' Ruining Movies"
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- deafpolygon 3y ago
  Basically, the streaming equivalent of "The Vault".
hedora 3y ago
It really shouldn’t be allowed, but, at the very least, if they’re writing off the show on their taxes, they should have to release it into the public domain.
Arnt 3y ago
You can. Assets are yours to to use or waste. You can go to your wardrobe, pick out your newest clothes and throw them away. You can pull out your wallet and burn all the bills. You can rm -rf ~, delete every project on your github account, etc. None of this is forbidden. You can leave your well-paying job, which reduces your tax bill and isn't forbidden. You're not required to act in such a way as to earn more or pay more tax.
- latexr 3y ago
  > You can pull out your wallet and burn all the bills. (…) None of this is forbidden. Depending on where you live, it might be. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_burning#Legality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_burning#Legality
- rasz 3y ago
  So I can paint 'Mona Free Moneya', value it at $1Billion and then burn it for a tax write-off, right?
  - Arnt 3y ago
    Yes, you can. The net tax effect will be about -$5: ① Purchase paint and canvas for $5 ② Create $1B asset and add it to your accounting ③ Write down asset to zero. You can claim a $5 loss and reduce you tax burden by $1 or something like that, so the scheme only costs you $4. Clever people try to do more sophisticated versions of this around the end of a year. Add an asset in December, write it down in January, or the other way around. That can make sense if the rules for the two years are different, or if there's some reason to pay the tax in 2023 instead of 2024, or…
- MattGaiser 3y ago
  But they aren't destroying the asset in this case. They are just not using the asset. The show is presumably not destroyed. They are just not showing it. You couldn't put clothing in another wardrobe and claim that as a loss, could you? Could you claim moving all your code to Bitbucket devalued it as Bitbucket is harder to use and fewer devs know how to use it?

throwaway67743 3y ago

"why don't you have Netflix?" I hear very often, now I have an article to point at finally!

move-on-by 3y ago

It seems like a new golden age of piracy is on the horizon. How else will consumers respond? It was so nice to stream back in the early days of Netflix streaming- so much easier than pirating. And, there was a huge library to choose from. Eventually licensing and content owners got involved and broke it up into a bunch of streaming services. But, still not a huge inconvenience if you have 2 or 3 services there is still access to a ton of content and people have largely moved on from piracy. But if the content is literally not available? How does that not make people reacquaint themselves with piracy options? Once piracy becomes normalized again, why continue paying for those 2-3 streaming service that don’t have what you are looking for anyways? It seems really short sighted and driven by bean-counters. Maybe no one believes a VPN and piracy is simple enough for the average streamer to undertake?