Marvel & Star Wars could be separate from new Disney streaming service
Despite nominally being under the same corporate banner, Marvel and "Star Wars" could be spun off into their own streaming services separate from one Disney announced this week, according to Disney CEO Bob Iger.
The content could still be put on a Disney-branded service, coming in 2019, but there may not be much overlap between the three fanbases, TechCrunch quoted Iger as saying. The company is reportedly considering multiple options -- and whether or not there's even enough video to sustain separate entities.
"We're mindful of the volume of product that would go into those services, and we want to be careful about that," Iger said.
While there are a growing number of Marvel movies and TV shows, it would still represent just a fraction of the material available on services like Netflix and Hulu. There are even fewer "Star Wars" properties, including just nine mainline movies and spinoff shows like "Droids," "Rebels," and "Clone Wars."
Iger told CNBC that there are no plans to pull Marvel shows from Netflix. New movies will stop appearing there by the time the Disney streaming service launches, however.
Any services from Disney will almost certainly appear on iPhones, iPads, and the Apple TV. Apple is believed to be preparing a fifth-generation Apple TV, which should support 4K and various HDR standards, and possibly ship as soon as this fall.
The content could still be put on a Disney-branded service, coming in 2019, but there may not be much overlap between the three fanbases, TechCrunch quoted Iger as saying. The company is reportedly considering multiple options -- and whether or not there's even enough video to sustain separate entities.
"We're mindful of the volume of product that would go into those services, and we want to be careful about that," Iger said.
While there are a growing number of Marvel movies and TV shows, it would still represent just a fraction of the material available on services like Netflix and Hulu. There are even fewer "Star Wars" properties, including just nine mainline movies and spinoff shows like "Droids," "Rebels," and "Clone Wars."
Iger told CNBC that there are no plans to pull Marvel shows from Netflix. New movies will stop appearing there by the time the Disney streaming service launches, however.
Any services from Disney will almost certainly appear on iPhones, iPads, and the Apple TV. Apple is believed to be preparing a fifth-generation Apple TV, which should support 4K and various HDR standards, and possibly ship as soon as this fall.
Comments
No, there's not enough Star Wars content to devote to a channel, even if you include the Clone Wars or Rebels series. Marvel and Disney each have tons of content.
There's also convenience. Having to load multiple apps to watch things quickly starts to become less convenient than just flipping channels.
That being said, I hope the media companies keep it easier to legally obtain their product.
No, it is remarkably easy to switch apps in ATV, just like app switching on iphone.
But I could care less, I don’t flip channels or apps - I sit down to consume the content I have in mind. That’s how most people use these devices now. Flipping thru channels of mindless shit is the old way of watching TV.
There is a problem with branding this way. The Disney brand doesn't sit well being the entry point to Star Wars, Marvel and sports content, separate apps work better. Separate apps can fit into a unified subscription model though.
Maybe Apple should have a subscription selector for streaming video content. It would be like a one page checklist for the most popular video subscriptions on the App Store and you just check the ones you want and it shows the total monthly bill so you don't have to install each app from the TV store to find out how much the total will be. Unchecking one would remove the associated apps. There would be other subscriptions that could be searched for from smaller providers but the main TV networks would just show up in the list and it can show all the content they offer. It can highlight where different services offer the same content and also what exclusive content they have. If Disney had a split subscription and someone was already subscribing to Netflix, which had Marvel content, it could highlight that an additional Marvel subscription wasn't needed but it could say that the Disney one had extras like comics, additional features etc.
Netflix could have this model too where people get to pick which content shows in their library. That way there's more money going to the content people actually want, which is apparently low quality Adam Sandler movies:
https://qz.com/942599/netflixs-nflx-most-watched-original-films-are-critical-flops-the-do-over-and-ridiculous-6-from-adam-sandler/
People could choose a package that showed a higher amount of recent movies that cuts out some older content. At the very least, they'd have their standard/premium payment tiers in the list. The aggregate subscription page can be something like this:
The list would be longer and can scroll behind the total but that lets people see the prices and where they are paying for the same content multiple times, each item can show a promo/info page on swiping right when it's highlighted. People can easily switch subscription tiers and content packs with the sub lists and see how it affects the price. It can also bill once at the same time no matter when the subscription starts. Checking for duplicates would be easier if streamed content had item/pack numbers like ISBN codes.