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Disney is replacing its free streaming apps by pushing customers into paying for Disney+ streaming, and now it’s sweetened the deal with a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week channel featuring Disney Junior content.
Credit: Inside the Magic
The Walt Disney Company has decided that it is putting all its eggs in the streaming basket, and pretty much every aspect of its ongoing entertainment business concerns is being angled to try to make it profitable. Of course, streaming doesn’t make money for any company other than Netflix, but Bob Iger and his c-suite compatriots have committed to the new medium, even if it’s infamously “not sustainable.”
Related: Disney+ Gives up on Streaming Content, Swerves Back to Cable
That means that Disney has to figure out a way to make some revenue from its various streaming platforms. Currently, Disney+ and Hulu both consistently lose money every fiscal quarter; the executives keep promising shareholders that it’ll be a money-maker at some point in the future, but it just hasn’t happened.
Even the most recent announcement that streaming was finally in the black for the Mouse turns out to have been “creative” spinning since the profits from ESPN+ had to be spread around to make it seem like all the other services weren’t deep in the red.
Credit: Inside the Magic
Right now, Disney streaming is bad business. The company is doing everything it can to try to fix that, which includes doubling the original subscription price, adding commercials (including, bizarrely, ads for the content you are currently watching), and getting rid of any free options that viewers are used to.
To that last point, Disney recently announced that it was shutting down the apps for DisneyNOW, Freeform, FXNOW, ABC, and National Geographic. Prior to this, there were free-to-use apps bundled with satellite and cable subscriptions, like a consumer might get from Dish or DirecTV. Clearly, things aren’t going too well on that entire side of the media world.
Credit: Disney
Related: Disney Officially Promises to Stop Raising Streaming Rates in Historic New Deal
In particular, the DisneyNOW app included Disney Channel, Disney XD, and Disney Junior content, all of which are now available on Disney+ (soon to cost $15.99 a month without ads, up from $7.99 just five years ago). To try to offset the price tag and get around any frustrations about the shuttered apps, the Mouse has now added a 24/7 Disney Junior channel (per Cord Cutters News).
Essentially, the company is recreating the experience of watching TV…but now, it’s streaming, and you pay for it every month. In this bold new future, it seems like the Mouse wants to go retro.
How many Disney streaming services do you use?
