STREAMING Disney quit Netflix for own service. Fragmentation?

Disney now offering streaming TV.

Apple will have to join this suddenly crowded market, with Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and more facing increasing competition.

If more of the big six follow suit, surely that will actually undermine the paid-for streaming industry and encourage a resurgence in piracy?

Not in Lux. yet, but a fullscale streaming option is being rolled out.

If you're a household bill payer will you want to add a $10+ monthly Disney service to a $10 Netflix ... Amazon Prime ... Hulu (and probably Spotify/other music option), never mind a Sky or other cable bundle? If Universal, Sony and the rest mimic Disney, would you really go from 1, 2 or 3 subscription services to nearer 10, with the current big players all being hugely devalued by the loss of studio libraries?

Disney's move in many regards is a smart one - but not if it's rivals copy it's move.

Starting in early 2018, Disney will launch an ESPN video streaming service that will feature approximately 10,000 MLB, NHL, MLS, collegiate, and tennis sporting events every year. 
Then, in 2019, Disney will launch a Disney-branded direct-to-consumer streaming service that offers Disney content. [MacRumors]

Netflix and Amazon on edge as Disney plans own streaming service.

Disney said it had not yet made a decision on whether to include Marvel, home to the Avengers franchise and characters such as Iron Man and Captain America, and Lucasfilm, the company behind Indiana Jones and Star Wars, in the new service. The company has been identified as a potential buyer of Netflix, with which it has an exclusive film distribution deal in the US, with a market value of about $75bn.

“The media landscape is increasingly defined by direct relationships between content creators and consumers,” said [chief executive] Iger.

Earlier this week, Netflix moved to reduce its reliance on licensing intellectual property from rivals by acquiring comic book company Millarworld. It hopes that the company – whose properties Kick-Ass and Kingsman have already been turned into films that have been shown on the network – will do for it what the acquisition of Marvel has done for Disney. 

By owning its own franchises, Netflix is hoping to reduce its rapidly growing content budget. It has already committed to spending $16bn on the production and licensing of films and TV shows over the next five years.

A truly globalised conglomerate.