Disney Headlines for April 30th, 2024
We just got our first extended look at the Next Big Thing at Disney theme parks.
Also, we received some clarity on the Orlando transportation plan that’s happening with or without Disney and the future of NBA rights.
This is a fun week for Disney Headlines.
The First Real Test of the HoloTile
One of my favorite YouTubers, Marques Brownlee, recently got to do this:
A few weeks ago, Disney invited several high-profile influencers to Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI).
Disney didn’t allow any of them to record video inside the building.
When you have nearly 20 million YouTube subscribers, you play by different rules.
Disney authorized Brownlee to record those clips from inside WDI.
During his visit, he got to walk on the 360-degree treadmill, the next great Imagineering innovation.
On this moving floor, you can walk in any direction and still wind up back in the middle. It’s jaw-dropping tech.
Brownlee got to try the floor and quickly discovered something. He wasn’t very good at it. There’s a learning curve for the tech.
Hilariously, Imagineer Larry Smoot, the 68-year-old inventor of the so-called HoloTile, moves around like it’s perfectly natural.
I’ve cued up one notable moment in the video:
Brownlee is testing a project that may never get off the ground. He’s exploring a holodeck as he describes it.
The apparatus for this is the Apple Vision Pro, whose sales have been shaky thus far to the point that Apple just cut production.
When you keep watching, you’ll notice something that matters more.
Disney has already created an augmented reality version of Disneyland that Imagineers use with the HoloTile.
Theme park attraction creators are already exploring ideas for the integration of HoloTile at the parks as well. Here’s another clip:
Folks, that’s Star Wars. Dude can move things around like he’s Darth Vader, and he even gets to use the working Lightsaber!
As Brownlee notes, this tech clearly isn’t ready yet, but after a couple more years of park expansion, who knows…
The Sunshine Corridor Nears
A while ago, Florida officials announced plans for the so-called Sunshine Corridor.
This passenger rail would connect Orlando International Airport to an area near Disney Springs.
Originally, plans called for a station AT Disney Springs, but Disney dropped out of the project after another party got involved.
Comcast successfully lobbied for a stop conveniently near the upcoming Universal Epic Universe.
As part of the negotiations, Comcast agreed to donate 13 acres of land and up to $125 million in funding for the project.
That’s a nice start, but it’s nowhere near enough. We just learned specifics for the project, and it’s angering many taxpayers.
Specifically, the cost to connect the existing SunRail service to the airport is $400 million.
Also, when these estimates come out, they’re only low by 50 percent. That’s a feature, not a bug, to cushion the blow to voters.
Politicians know they must raise taxes to pay for huge ventures like this one.
If they say how much a project will really cost, they get voted out of office before construction is even completed.
I’m not saying that randomly because $400 million reflects just a fraction of the actual cost for this project as planned.
The current estimate indicates that building the Sunshine Corridor with the stop near Epic Universe will cost…$4 billion.
So, if we bump that up by the same 50 percent estimate, it becomes $6 billion.
Even if the project somehow came in under budget – and what’s the last major municipal project to do that? – we’re still talking $3.5 billion.
The only way to pay for that is to raise taxes, and everyone knows it.
Alas, in 2022, voters rejected the so-called Penny Tax.
Now, city officials will try again in hopes of reinvigorating Orlando transportation. Good luck!
Amazon Takes a Cut of the NBA
Earlier in April, Warner Bros. Discover and The Walt Disney Company took a calculated risk.
Both companies allowed their exclusive negotiating windows for NBA licensing rights to expire.
Everyone in the industry knows that the NBA wants to double its money with this licensing agreement.
Conventional media companies lack the wherewithal to make that happen, at least when pitted against the trillion-dollar businesses.
The NBA sought to add a third partner from among candidates such as Amazon, Apple, and Google.
Once the exclusive rights window closed, negotiations didn’t take long at all.
According to the always-informed Andrew Marchand, Amazon Prime Video will become “one of the main homes for the league’s games.”
Marchand indicates that “Prime Video’s package will include significant regular-season and postseason games, perhaps even some conference finals.”
Then, he adds that “the final contract will be for at least a decade and begin (with) the 2025-2026 season.”
Obviously, you’re wondering whether ESPN is losing its licensing rights to NBA games. That’s apparently not the case.
In fact, this report sounds like excellent news. Here’s the Disney part:
“ESPN/ABC is expected to keep the NBA Finals on its networks for the duration of its deals.
“Like Amazon, ESPN’s new contract also is expected to be at least a decade in length.”
Currently, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) is on the outside looking in and may have gambled and lost.
However, there’s still one piece of the licensing rights deal to come.
Comcast, the corporate owner of NBCUniversal, will bid against WBD for those remaining rights.
I hope WBD wins because I don’t want to live in a world without the NBA on the TNT team. We’d all miss gems like this:
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