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Disney Will Price Streaming Service At $5 Per Month, Analyst Says (fiercecable.com) 130

Posted by BeauHD from the over-the-top dept.
Earlier this month, Disney announced it would end its distribution deal with Netflix and launch its own streaming service in 2019. Now, according to MoffettNathanson analyst Michael Nathanson, we have learned that Disney's new streaming service will be priced around $5 per month in order to drive wider adoption. FierceCable reports: Nathanson said that the new Disney streaming service and the upcoming ESPN streaming service need a clear distinction. The ESPN service will likely test different prices as it prepares ESPN to be ready to go fully over-the-top, according to the report, but the Disney service is about building asset value instead of taking licensing money from SVOD deals. At $5 per month in ARPU, Nathanson sees revenues from the Disney streaming service ranging from $34 million to $38 million in the first year and more than $230 million by year three. But with the loss of Netflix licensing revenues and accelerated marketing costs for launching the new service, Nathanson predicted Disney's losses will increase by about $200 million to $425 million per year. If Disney's new streaming service does end up costing around $5 per month, could you justify paying for it?
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Disney Will Price Streaming Service At $5 Per Month, Analyst Says More

Disney Will Price Streaming Service At $5 Per Month, Analyst Says

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  • Five bucks for everything Disney owns? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Disney movies, Star Wars, Pixar, Marvel, everything on the Disney channel?

    Disney wins. Netflix loses. We're done here.

    • Re:Five bucks for everything Disney owns? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by gfxguy ( 98788 ) on Monday August 21, 2017 @07:58PM (#55060331)
      Depends... if you see most of the biggies in the theaters, then unless you like re-watching movies a lot, $60/year may not get you a lot. It's a very limited catalog compared to the bulk of what's out there. Of course, there's more than that... if they include all the Touchstone pictures, and they include their whole catalog and not just some limited selection every month (and if they stop "vaulting" the classics), then it certainly would be a clear win.

      • Re: Five bucks for everything Disney owns? (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Other than Star Wars, Disney is a waste of my money. Unless they're pumping out 4-5 Star Wars movies per year, I'll pass. See ya Disney, I was tired of super hero movies years ago and the rest never interested me.

        • They are the reason I will not watch the new Star Wars movies. Once Lucas sold out to them, they became a "no longer interested" collection.

          • They are the reason I will not watch the new Star Wars movies. Once Lucas sold out to them, they became a "no longer interested" collection.

            Disney's Star Wars movies are better than the last three Lucas made.

            • That is not the point. They deserve to be treated just like they treated their IT staff at Disney World. Like crap.

              However, I did hear that the first one was pretty good, but the second one had parts of the movie where you could not understand the actors due to their heavy accents and guttural speech.

              • That is not the point. They deserve to be treated just like they treated their IT staff at Disney World. Like crap.

                Fair enough

                However, I did hear that the first one was pretty good, but the second one had parts of the movie where you could not understand the actors due to their heavy accents and guttural speech.

                Except for someone who's never interacted with someone who speaks English as a second language, there should be no problems with understanding.

                • I grew up on Okinawa, and I currently live in a heavy Hispanic state, so I do not have issues with accents and non-interaction of English as a second language. I just have an issue with poor pronunciation.

                  • I grew up on Okinawa, and I currently live in a heavy Hispanic state, so I do not have issues with accents and non-interaction of English as a second language. I just have an issue with poor pronunciation.

                    In that case, I think if you ever choose to watch it that you will be pleasantly surprised to discover that the entire dialog is comprehensible.

        • Other than Star Wars, Disney is a waste of my money. Unless they're pumping out 4-5 Star Wars movies per year, I'll pass. See ya Disney, I was tired of super hero movies years ago and the rest never interested me.

          This 100%! Each family needs to determine if the $5 / month is worth it for them. With 2 toddler boys it might be worth it just for their cartoon selection. 1 Star Wars movie every two years isn't enough to justify it for me (cheaper to just buy the discs).

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        How long until it goes full circle, everything diverges into separate subscriptions, people get tired of it, and someone has the amazing idea to bundle everything into one package and price to a purpose designed box connected to the TV that gives you a consistent experience. Oh snap, you already can!

    • Disney movies, Star Wars, Pixar, Marvel, everything on the Disney channel?

      The previous rumors indicated Disney was exploring offering multiple streaming services, each of which would include only part of their catalog... I can't see that flying.

      If it's all rolled into one channel, they very well might be successful. I won't be buying it, though - they don't have that much content, and I already own most of the Disney/Pixar/etc. titles that I care about.

    • C'mon, this is Disney we're talking here. For 5 bucks a month the best you can hope for is getting to see the old cartoons that are being rotated through the Disney channel.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by jwhyche ( 6192 )

        Unless its the old politically incorrect cartoons from days gone by, still not worth it.

    • Re:Five bucks for everything Disney owns? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Wycliffe ( 116160 ) on Monday August 21, 2017 @10:31PM (#55060923) Homepage

      Disney movies, Star Wars, Pixar, Marvel, everything on the Disney channel?

      Disney wins. Netflix loses. We're done here.

      If it's their full catalog and they did away with the vault then yeah, $5 per month is a very good deal. My kids would be very content with only watching Pixar, Marvel, and Disney movies but considering that $5/month is cheaper than what it costs to add just the Disney Channel to most cable packages, I very seriously doubt it will be the full catalog. HBO charges $15/month for its content and doesn't have near the depth of Disney.

      It would be interesting to see what would happen if they did offer their entire IP for $5/month. I don't subscribe to any streaming services at the moment but I would pay for that and plenty of other parents would too.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by msk ( 6205 )

        Plus all the TV shows they did, over the past seven decades or so.

        But better if they'd just make a new deal with Netflix.

        I don't see paying for yet another streaming service.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Osgeld ( 1900440 )

      have you seen disney star wars, anything pixar post 1999, and 1 single program on the disney channel

      LOL

      • Re:Five bucks for everything Disney owns? (Score:4, Informative)

        by LostMyBeaver ( 1226054 ) on Tuesday August 22, 2017 @02:08AM (#55061441)
        My kids were not allowed to watch Disney Channel or cartoon network (with rare exceptions) for most of their childhood. Toon Disney was ok because it was things like Gummibears and Ducktales. But things like Hanna Montana and Two Kings (I think that's the name) or Wasabi Dojo etc... were all off limits.

        While this one rule wasn't enough to really shape their lives, my kids were almost famous among other parents for being the most well behaved and polite children in day care or school.

        The Disney Channel itself has one show after the next which glorifies being stupid, arrogant, popular, bossy, etc... There are multiple shows back to back that show that the people everyone loves most are the people with the worst judgement and loudest mouths.

        You would almost think that ESPN is paying Disney to make these shows to ensure they have a viewership later on.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by dave4 ( 5038527 )
          I think this is more to do with you being the only parent who sets boundaries for their kids. Parents who let kids watch whatever are probably also going to be hands off in other areas. I watched a lot of crap on TV, but was always well behaved as my parents where quite strict in setting boundaries. I used to have big trouble explaining to friends that they where not allowed to just take whatever food and snacks where in the house and we should ask instead of raid the fridge.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by johanw ( 1001493 )

          > The Disney Channel itself has one show after the next which glorifies being stupid, arrogant, popular, bossy, etc... There are multiple shows back to back that show that the people everyone loves most are the people with the worst judgement and loudest mouths.

          Revenge of the nerds, manager edition? :-)

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by jwhyche ( 6192 )

      No Disney loses. Netflix loses, but eventually wins. People already have Netflix, and I doubt many people will shell out $5 for little mermaid.

      As for Star Wars and Marvel, true fans will already have them on DVD/BR, and the rest will just wait for them to come on TV.

      I predict the disney stream will be still born and they will eventually crawl back to netflix like good little sheepe.

  • $5? Sure! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 21, 2017 @07:58PM (#55060335)

    Sure, it will be $5 forever.

    • Shenanigans?? (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I somehow doubt it'll ever really be $5. I anticipate some shenanigans on the monthly bill to raise the final amount. I'm looking at you mister "franchise tax fee" on my inflated cable and phone bills!

  • SLASHDOT. NEWS THAT SPECULATES (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Yeah, okay. With HBO wanting 15 bones, Netflix wanting 10 bones for HD. Hulu wanting 12 bones for ad-free...

    You're telling me Disney is going to ask for 5$? Maybe for an intro rate that changes after a year. Even crunchyroll wants 7$.

    When the only place you can watch Disney Movies, Star Wars, and all of the Marvel movies is the disney sub you better fucking believe they're gonna charge more than 5$ a month. Plus there's all the ESPN shit they own, and anything that is ABC.

    I didn't go to brandeis or yale lik

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dgatwood ( 11270 )

      Yeah, okay. With HBO wanting 15 bones, Netflix wanting 10 bones for HD. Hulu wanting 12 bones for ad-free...

      You're telling me Disney is going to ask for 5$? Maybe for an intro rate that changes after a year. Even crunchyroll wants 7$.

      No, that's actually quite a bit more than it should cost proportional to those other services. Hulu charges $12 for content from NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, SyFy, USA, and probably a dozen other networks with smaller catalogs. HBO provides only TV shows from one provider, but provid

      • It really depends on how extensive Disney allows their library to be. When you consider everything that falls under the umbrella of Disney these days and how long they've been producing content, they could be very competitive. Then you also have to consider the hordes of rabid fans. If there is any company that stands a real chance of competing with Netflix it'd be Disney. I still expect them to abandon it in a few years when they get sick of trying to manage it, but in the meantime my kids will probably ca

  • No (Score:5, Insightful)

    by duke_cheetah2003 ( 862933 ) on Monday August 21, 2017 @08:01PM (#55060349) Homepage

    This splintering of streaming services is really stupid.

    There is no way I am dealing with this. Team up with NetFlix, or go home. I am not buying subscriptions for every content provider, it's just stupid.

    I don't even mind if you wanna force NetFlix to collect your $5/mo to access your content, that's ok. But no to multiple stream providers, I got enough accounts all over the web as it is now.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      This is basically what I came here to say. Put it on my Netflix or I'll pirate it instead.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      This splintering of streaming services is really stupid.

      There is no way I am dealing with this. Team up with NetFlix, or go home. I am not buying subscriptions for every content provider, it's just stupid.

      I don't even mind if you wanna force NetFlix to collect your $5/mo to access your content, that's ok. But no to multiple stream providers, I got enough accounts all over the web as it is now.

      Amazon Prime video already does this with HBO. For an extra $15 a month, I have HBO shows on all my devices with no need for an extra App or account. It would be smart and easy to just piggy back off that concept and make a separate app / account for those who really want it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by SeaFox ( 739806 )

      I dunno. I think $5/mo for all Disney is pretty reasonable.
      Now, $10 or more... nope.

      That's part of the issue with the splintering of video services (or paid website subscriptions). There seems to be this notion of how much the rate should be that's based on some imaginary shared "minimum price", and not grounded in an analysis of the individual service and its content amount. Like here, Disney would say "we're going to price it at $x/mo because of Netflix's rate, completely ignoring the size of their conten

    • This splintering of streaming services is really stupid.

      Agreed. It's funny; I'd be willing to pay Netflix more, but I'm not willing to pay separate services individually.

      As in, I'd probably be okay with a Netflix bill being $15/mo instead of $10/mo to include Disney content. Add $5/mo for HBO, $5/mo for Starz, and so on, and I'd probably still be okay with it. But as long as I'm expected to deal with each one individually... no.

      Netflix gets my monthly subscription. End of story. Fragmentation is not negotiable. Price is.

      • Agreed. It's funny; I'd be willing to pay Netflix more, but I'm not willing to pay separate services individually.

        This is where I don't agree. I am totally cool with a good solid streaming service charging for addons. Hulu is already doing it, you can add HBO stuff, but they want too much for it.

        I think the $5 price point is a good target. HBO addon for Hulu is $14.95. That's just a bit much to swallow for content.

    • I am not buying subscriptions for every content provider, it's just stupid.

      Why? How is it any different than only ten years ago when you had to pay separate subscriptions to every newspaper and magazine you wanted to follow? (Or walk into a newsagent to buy them over the counter at full price.)

      • How is it any different than only ten years ago when you had to pay separate subscriptions to every newspaper and magazine you wanted to follow?

        I got to keep the magazines I bought after I cancelled the subscription.

      • A better analogy would be if a publisher forced you to subscribe to all of their magazines in order to get the one you wanted. Just want to watch Game of Thrones and House of Cards? You can't get individual subscriptions to those, and have pay for all the content on HBO and Netflix to get them. Your analogy would be valid if they'd let you watch individual series for $1/month or whatever.

        With this fragmentation I am kind of hoping VOD will take off again at some point, but there's precious little on o

        • That's how newspapers work. I only want the funnies and the recipes but I must buy the entire paper. If you live in a rural town you can at least subscribe only to the Sunday edition to get closer to what I consider ideal.

    • > This splintering of streaming services is really stupid.
      >
      > There is no way I am dealing with this. Team up with NetFlix, or go home.
      > I am not buying subscriptions for every content provider, it's just stupid.

      There is such an option... it's called cable TV. The problem is that the bundle of stuff that *YOU* want is not the same as the bundle *I* want or the bundle that *YOUR NEIGHBOUR* wants. If you bundle in everthing that all people want, into one honking big package, you get "the 500-channe

    • IMO, another bad decision by an equally bad company. The moment they replaced their IT staff, they became irrelevant to me. I will treat them just as they did their former employees.

    • I'll pay Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, or Disney but not all four. And even then HBO and Starz are a problem as well.

      Here's a question for you, why should they consolidate under Netflix and not YouTube Red?

    • Personally with Netflix's lack of content and not for me originals I'm closer than ever to cancelling.
  • when the cable co starts charging 200/mo for your standalone high speed internet and you need another $100/mo for 5 different subscription models, how is that better than what you have today? i'm no fan of the cable companies due to their piss poor service, but do you all realize they OWN the delivery system for their COMPETITION? They can't lose.... unless it all goes wireless.

  • ok now take Disney out of basic and let me save $5 (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Joe_Dragon ( 2206452 ) on Monday August 21, 2017 @08:38PM (#55060509)

    ok now take Disney out of basic and let me save $5/mo.

  • It will probably start increasing in price over the years that follow as Disney finds out how this market works.

  • Clients? (Score:3)

    by GreatDrok ( 684119 ) on Monday August 21, 2017 @09:05PM (#55060613) Journal

    Netflix has clients on a large array of platforms so it is always easy to watch material. I have an Amazon Prime subscription but only a few devices have a client so I either watch on my laptop (rarely) or stream from my iPhone to my Apple TV (rarely) and I only have the subscription because of other benefits of Amazon Prime. Disney won't have such additional benefits so even at $5 a month, if I can't watch it other than on a few devices or in an inconvenient way via AirPlay then I'm not going to bother. There are other similar services around that are similarly limited and I don't subscribe to them either.

  • And 5 U.S. dollars will magically turn into 10 Canadian dollars, plus taxes.

  • IF no one supports it, they will give up but some idiots will think $5 is not much and purchase it... if they cant team up with Netflix they need go home.

  • > If Disney's new streaming service does end up costing around $5 per month, could you justify paying for it?

    Probably not. Disney has tried to roll their own before (the destructo-disks of several years ago) and when they realize that people aren't buying it, they eventually give up and do what everyone else is doing, while their marketing tries to make it seem like they invented it. (As in "Disney DVD".)

    But I'm probably not the target. TV isn't that important to me. I watch a movie a week on Friday

  • No one will play 15 a month or even 8 for just Disney.

  • If all Disney movies and TV shows ever are available on there, it might be worth it for families with small children.

    Most adults like myself already own the MCU content, Star Wars content, and Disney movie content that they want so it's probably not worth it.

  • with a small child in the house disney should be a dead given

    but their channel is absolute shit, you can turn it on, get a half hour of commercials of shit your kid would want to watch, then get some garbage made for 15 year old's that are not watching it anyway

    NOW you want me to pay for a streaming service full of shit that a little kid wont watch, and a bigger kid wont watch as well??

    LOL fuck you and good luck with that crap

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Quirkz ( 1206400 )

      I understand the sentiment, but find this poor logic. If your two objections are commercials and poor timing with the programming, then a streaming service would fix both. There would be no commercials (I assume), and you could pick what shows you wanted to watch and when. Sounds like this would be perfect for you!

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Osgeld ( 1900440 )

        but we dont watch anything on it, there's no reason to pay another service to pick and choose stuff we dont watch

    • NOW you want me to pay for a streaming service full of shit that a little kid wont watch, and a bigger kid wont watch as well??

      LOL fuck you and good luck with that crap

      It's worse than that. They want you to pay for a streaming service full of their movies and your little kid will pick their favorite and play it over and over and over till you have all the songs memorized and are driven insane. Judging by the tone of your post, that may have already happened.

  • I love these old companies that think they can join the modern age by copying other companies; except they always copy the wrong things and then go on to keep the things that allow the successful companies to end run the old ones.

    For instance, who thinks that Disney will have endless advertising for their other products, toys, etc? Who thinks that they will have endless FBI warnings? Who thinks that they will do things to manipulate schedules so as to "addict" the little tikes?

    Also who thinks that this
  • If it winds up being $AU8 then forget it, but $AU5, that and Stan ($AU10 a month) has everything my kids watch for the same price as Netflix ($AU15). Sure I'll consider it.

  • Can I justify paying for it? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    If Disney's new streaming service does end up costing around $5 per month, could you justify paying for it?

    No. Absolutely not. I already pay for two services. There is no way I will pay for yet another. Will not happen.

    The only way I would go with a new service, is if the new one were to supplant the existing ones in terms of the content I am interested in, so that I can get rid of them, which is also not going to happen with all of the "exclusivity" nonsense going on.

    In short: No.

  • fuck off disney (Score:3)

    by gravewax ( 4772409 ) on Tuesday August 22, 2017 @02:36AM (#55061477)
    could I justify paying it? sure. WILL I justify paying it? Fuck NO. supporting this would mean supporting proliferation of streaming services, the end result is me having to subscribe to 20 or 30 streaming services to get content I currently get from a couple or worse yet it drives the collapse of content provider agnostic services forcing everyone into this fucked up model, NO THANKS.

  • While bundling sites might work Disney doing it's own thing will actually lead to more piracy. Everything for $40 is the magic price point for streaming. $10 more for sports. If all the content producers are going a la cart then it should be more like $2 for Disney and $5 for HBO originals.

    At $5 or even $20 I'm instantly thinking... signup once or twice a year and rip everything I'm interested in to a hard drive or more simply just binge it all in a month. But I'm lazy and tend to just not watch TV anym

  • If Disney's new streaming service does end up costing around $5 per month, could you justify paying for it?

    It's not the price that'll need to be justified.

    It's the damn fragmentation.

    And how will the application be? What quality will they stream in? Will it be stable and support all major platforms, and the popular smaller ones, at launch?

    It's already a crap-shoot when trying a new provider. Out of my 8 or so providers (most of them I get bundled), only 2 of them are of sufficient quality; Netflix and HBO Nordic.

    The rest is a mixture of missing sufficient sound quality or no Full HD. I don't want to pay for the

  • ...how they price their service, i'm only subscribing to one streaming service, and for now it is Netflix that still provides me with the most content i'm interested in.
    i don't really care losing disney, because of all the things I watch, not much is disney related (except the Marvel-Netflix series).

  • Now I can see exactly how much money I'll be saving by ignoring their service completely. $60 a year added to what I don't spend on CBS's service is starting to look like real money!
  • If it is the whole catalog, all the time, yes. If there are any strings attached, a big resounding no. Your move, Disney.

  • When this news came out, I predicted [slashdot.org]

    if it doesn't cost at minimum 2x as much as Netflicks [sic} and suck hard, I'll be really surprised. When the only way to watch some of the older Disney movies, Star Wars, and Marvel movies is their platform, they're going to squeeze people soooo hard..... I wouldn't be surprised if the blueray prices got bumped up as well, just to make sure that their streaming service looks a little more enticing.

    I'm sticking by that, not because I'm an analyst in the field, but because Disney has a long, storied tradition of ripping customers off and squeezing every list cent out of things. The analyst gives no rational in this article for why $5, except "to drive adoption." BS that it's going to be $5. I don't even believe that it will be $5 for the intro rate, for the roll-out. Disney gives nothing away.

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