The show goes on
ZEENAT MOORAD: Disney-less future for Netflix
The house of mouse to launch own streaming service
Disney, in case you missed it, is pulling its titles from Netflix to launch its own streaming service. It makes sense, given the brand it can leverage. There’s also money in streaming, and the company figures it can make more of it from a Disney-branded streaming service than through licensing stuff to Netflix. The house of mouse has a lot going for it: box-office dominance (it corners childhood as a market), an unrivalled intellectual property library and deep coffers. It’s a US$160bn behemoth, with a multifaceted business model and no shortage of revenue streams: movies, television, theme parks, merchandising, licensing. Some, however, aren’t buying it. BTIG media futurist and analyst Rich Greenfield says Disney is passing up $350m a year in "high margin" revenue for what he reckons is a risky, new and untested service. More on this in a moment. Another reservation is that Disney is late to the party: Hulu, HBO Go, Amazon Video, Facebook Watch ... the market is pretty crowded. Sti...
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