Disney changes tune on physical media / home releases... wider meaning?

[KiryuRealty]

The price for 1 season on dvd was between £15 and £20. Now I can watch all of the seasons of a series for £15 a month, plus access to every other series.

The cost to print, produce and pay a store to sell a dvd is smaller than the cost of running severs, maintenance and support teams 24/7, before we include overheads like electricity cost.

Even Stevie Wonder could see these numbers don't make sense.

The funny thing here is that North American prices for TV on DVD and Blu are a LOT higher than the UK, so sales were usually worse, resulting in some series not being completed on Blu, or not being completed at all on home video, which led to fewer sales, which led to less and less content being released.

For a lot of collectors, the only way to finish some series was to hope for the UK release not to be region-locked and try to find a good deal on importing.

As for Disney, the smartest thing they could do would be to offer their classic stuff, UNCUT, on disc for collectors and cinephiles and keep their shitty, stupid edited versions on Disney+.

If Warner can release Looney Tunes and Tom And Jerry cartoons uncut with disclaimers, why can’t Disney stop disrespecting their past and do the same?

 

[Killer_Sakoman]

They killed physical media, and people got used to watch everything for ~ $15/month. There's no going back to Blu-ray, it is a huge investment. And increasing subscription prices will accelerate the crash ( which is going to happen anyway).

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

They would have to re-train people gradually over a period of years. Probably first by doing collections on Blu-Ray for films that can stand with a high-quality remaster. They'd probably have to do like 5-8 movies remastered at like 8K or something in high-quality Blu-Ray format for $30 - $40. And simultaneously remove those same films from the streaming service.

And just keep doing that over the years, putting more and collections out, removing more and more from the service (come up with an excuse you can), until they can get away with maybe doing 3-4 such films on the same discs at the same price.

They'll have to prioritize Blu-Ray releases for new films ahead of putting them in Disney+, and/or doing the VOD offer for individual new film releases like they tried for a bit a couple years ago.

 

[ethomaz]

With people having too many subscriptions, it's not easy to increase their prices.

Another side effect (my own experience) when you have many subscriptions is that you see you basically don’t use them and start to drop most of them to hold only 1.

Pandemic helped to consumers to realize that and now subs are dropping in all places.

 

[ethomaz]

Yea you’re not going to see a return to physical media. No shot.

I see them moving to ppv prices for tentpole releases as streamed tv series evolve into more dominant entertainment.

I don’t think their loses will lead them back to physical… that is not even the issue with subscription models. But they will start to review how movies / TV Shows enters in subscriptions, some new models probably will include:

- Releases that reaches subscription only after some time
- Releases that only hit on demand (that is the replace for physical).
- Releases that will hit only a Premium subscription option (aka exclusive to expensive plans).

Disney, HBO, Netflix, etc are all changing how they work since last year to try to recover the revenue they lose. I forget they are putting Ads in the basic/cheaper plans to force people go to Premium plans.

That is what Xbox fans don’t understand… no matter how many subscribers you have the drop in revenue to all publishers and developers are real and really big to the point that the industry have less and less money to invest to create games and work in the quality of these games.

While it seems like a good deal for consumers in the long terms consumes are the most affected by subscription models… with less and less quality and releases.

Subscription model breaks the industry.
That is happening in movie/shows industry and it will happen in game industry.

 

[Alabtrosmyster]

Yea you’re not going to see a return to physical media. No shot.

I see them moving to ppv prices for tentpole releases as streamed tv series evolve into more dominant entertainment.

This is a lot like Sony does for their gaming platform. You have a service to access a library of games (ps+ or whatever they call it now), while the premium games, as well as the vast majority of games, get paid release and then later they may or may not have a run on the subscription based access.

 

[KiryuRealty]

Yea you’re not going to see a return to physical media. No shot.

I see them moving to ppv prices for tentpole releases as streamed tv series evolve into more dominant entertainment.

Streaming will not be equal in quality to physical for a long time to come, and until it is, there will be a market for physical media. The bitrate of a 4K UHD disc is beyond even what gigabit fibre can allow.

Also, with things like the head of HBOMax saying that he wants to start cycling content on and off of the service, it will once again lead to the only way to watch what you want, when you want it, guaranteed, will be physical media.

 

[Deleted member 417]

Just imagine what would happen if all of those people with subscriptions realised that with 10 minutes on the internet and a VPN you can legally get everything for free.

THAT would cause some stuff to go down.

 

[KiryuRealty]

Just imagine what would happen if all of those people with subscriptions realised that with 10 minutes on the internet and a VPN you can legally get everything for free.

THAT would cause some stuff to go down.

OR there's people like me. I COULD download full 4K UHD rips, but storage is a HUGE hassle when a well-authored disc can be 75GB.

 

[Deleted member 417]

OR there's people like me. I COULD download full 4K UHD rips, but storage is a HUGE hassle when a well-authored disc can be 75GB.

I mean streaming. 4K UHD blu rays are saved for the creamiest of the crop. Predator (Arnie) in 4k is superb. Streaming won't replicate that

But, the dross that normies watch? Sure, stream that crap all day long for free. An Amazon firestick and literally 10 minutes and you have all the content in the world.

 

[Alabtrosmyster]

OR there's people like me. I COULD download full 4K UHD rips, but storage is a HUGE hassle when a well-authored disc can be 75GB.

Not only storage, but backup... You don't want to loose your 500tb movie and tv shows collection!

 

[KiryuRealty]

I mean streaming. 4K UHD blu rays are saved for the creamiest of the crop. Predator (Arnie) in 4k is superb. Streaming won't replicate that

But, the dross that normies watch? Sure, stream that crap all day long for free. An Amazon firestick and literally 10 minutes and you have all the content in the world.

Oh yeah, for basic shit, I just grab torrents and use VLC on my Apple TV for it all. Especially when a lot of the streaming services either have limited content, or no proper availability in Canada. Even some of the stuff Shudder financed the production on never comes to the service here!

 

[KiryuRealty]

Not only storage, but backup... You don't want to loose your 500tb movie and tv shows collection!

A hard drive failure killed a year's worth of stuff I got off of Cinemageddon. Anyone who knows what that tracker is all about knows that losing that kind of library makes a cinephile weep.

 

[Alabtrosmyster]

Especially when a lot of the streaming services either have limited content, or no proper availability in Canada. Even some of the stuff Shudder financed the production on never comes to the service here!

And this is about to get much worse!

 

[Darth Vader]

I remember seeing raw 4k back when I worked in TV. The studio cameras captured raw 4k which was then compressed to 1080p for distribution. Even the 1080p version of any program looked better than "4k" streams in current subscription services, prior to being streamed of course.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

we could talk about business models, delivery methods, strategies, numbers and percentages....at the end of the day is about High Quality Content. Then you can figure out how to roll out this content in the most effective way.

one thing is certain: More Content dosen't translate to more Revenue/Profits.

 

[On Demand]

Why are people acting like Disney doesn’t make blurays already?

Disney / Buena Vista Blu-ray Movies and Releases

www.blu-ray.com

This isn’t about a “return to physical media.” They never left. It’s about putting back focus and marketing on physical media home entertainment and not just solely rely only on streaming since it’s not the golden goose everybody assumed it is.

 

[Zeroing]

Let me see if I got it right?
Disney keeps absorbing other companies and still having losses… maybe the problem is that they cannot keep growing forever…if they are in trouble, I imagine their competitors are in more dire situations.

Disney is too big to destroy itself but big enough to wipe out creativity from most of the industry …

Competition, control and quality - that sounds familiar, *cof *gaming industry

 

[Alabtrosmyster]

Why are people acting like Disney doesn’t make blurays already?

Disney / Buena Vista Blu-ray Movies and Releases

www.blu-ray.com

This isn’t about a “return to physical media.” They never left. It’s about putting back focus and marketing on physical media home entertainment and not just solely rely only on streaming since it’s not the golden goose everybody assumed it is.

Everybody who made basic napkin math on it figured out that digital distribution only made zero sense for anyone. Neither the client nor the distributor can possibly gain from that change.

Unless there is a monopoly and, like MS, you think you can get 500 million people on your service. But you still need to explain what would force them to release better than freemyum games.