Disney Headlines for August 6th, 2024
The Walt Disney Company just announced its latest streaming venture.
How well did Wall Street take the news? Well, the stock dropped almost immediately afterward.
Photo: Disney
That’s the kind of week of Disney Headlines we’ve had.
All Glory to Venu
On February 6th, The Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), and Fox Broadcasting Company shocked the world.
The three titans of network and cable television announced a joint venture, which we now know as Venu Sports, or Venu for short.
Photo: Venu
This idea hearkens back to two earlier eras of media consumption.
One is the glory days of cable television, when Disney, Fox, and WBD earned massive profits thanks to carriage fees.
Photo: Disney
Cable businesses like Comcast and Charter paid massive amounts of money for the programming that Disney and its peers created.
The fall of cable television has ended those salad days for the old-school media conglomerates, who desperately miss the money.
Filmmaker Magazine
Meanwhile, during the early days of streaming, back when nobody understood it, Disney joined a different joint venture.
Hulu combined network content from all the channels save for CBS.
Photo: Disney+
So, consumers could load Hulu and watch all the previous day’s programming from Disney, Fox, and NBC.
Hulu proved so successful that Disney recently spent (at least) $8.61 billion to buy Comcast’s remaining one-third ownership interest.
Disney/Comcast/Hulu
Now, Disney is trying to repeat this success story with Venu, the equivalent of Hulu for sports.
Along with WBD and Fox, Disney has created a so-called skinny bundle, which is a streaming service cable package.
Hulu banners
This product will allow people to watch all Disney cable channels, as well as those from WBD and Fox, such as TNT and TBS.
You can think of it as a makeshift bridge between the end of cable television and the true widespread adoption of streaming consumption.
Hulu/Disney+
Right now, many holdouts still subscribe to cable and/or streaming bundles.
In fact, I’m one of them and highly value YouTube TV. Venu will theoretically target people like me, but…
That Price, Tho…
This past week, the three companies revealed the starting price for a monthly subscription to Venu. The number feels NSFW.
Disney, WBD, and Fox believe that fans will pay $42.99 per month in exchange for access to all the popular sports programming.
Photo: Venu
That’s a total of $515.88 for a year, although you should keep in mind two aspects.
The first is that introductory pricing typically increases within 18 months, which is why Venu has made a promise.
Photo: English Jargon
The service won’t raise its price within the first year for people currently subscribed.
That’s a polite way of saying that the price WILL go up quickly.
Photo:cnet.com
On the other hand, we’ll probably see a handful of annual subscription deals between Venu’s launch and the end of 2024.
Skinny bundles aren’t as inclined to do that as standard streaming services, but it’s still a possibility.
Photo Credit: AP Photo/Richard Drew, File
Even so, the average consumer would pay $500+ for Venu. In exchange for that, they’ll get…less than expected.
WBD just blew its negotiations for NBA broadcasts. The 2024-2025 season will be the final one for WBD.
Photo: Warner Bros
After that, the company’s primary offerings to Venu will be Big Ten football games and NCAA March Madness.
So, the service has already taken on water since its February announcement through no fault of Disney’s.
Disney has even propped up WBD a bit by sublicensing some of its NCAA football playoff games.
Nobody should do that for a competitor as a rule, but Disney is propping up WBD due to Venu and another joint streaming bundle.
Photo: CNN
Thus far, WBD has been an albatross. Also, while Bob Iger made people look like fools after this sort of comment, I’ll say it anyway.
Thus far, Venu strikes me as the streaming answer to New Coke or the Cybertruck. It’s a debacle.
Disney’s Modified Film Schedule
The other big story this week is currently something of a non-story. I know that’s weird, but go with me on this one.
Disney quietly manipulated its film schedule late last week. You should pay attention to that for what it implies.
Photo: Marvel
The 2024 D23 Expo occurs this weekend, with Disney hosting a movie panel almost as significant as the one for Disney Experiences.
While Marvel dropped a bombshell at San Diego Comic-Con ten days ago, I don’t think it left everything on the playing field.
Photo: Getty Images for Disney
To the contrary, Disney’s moves the other day piqued my interest in what they didn’t say as much as what they did.
Disney has removed one unannounced title from the Marvel schedule for 2026. However, it has kept two others.
Photo: Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney
On Feb. 13, 2026, and Nov. 6, 2026, we’ll get new MCU releases.
I strongly suspect we’ll find out what those titles are this weekend. At a minimum, Disney will reveal at least one.
Photo: Marvel
Along those lines, Marvel stubbornly refused to delay Blade from its November 2025 release.
Given the troubled nature of that production and the fact that it currently lacks a director (!), I dunno how it can come out in 15 months.
Photo: The Cosmic Circus
So, we should pay attention to what Disney says this weekend, as something may be cooking here, just as was the case with Avengers: Doomsday.
Other Possibilities
A lot of this is more speculative than I typically am with Disney Headlines, but these moves feel like they’re setting the table.
Hopefully, Disney will invite us to dinner this weekend. Oh, and I’ve just focused on Marvel here.
Photo: Marvel
Let’s not forget that we’re likely to get updates on Moana 2, the Moana live-action adaptation, and possibly some sequels.
I’m looking at you, Encanto and Zootopia! Pixar could unveil a new title as well.
Photo: Disney
There’s plenty in play this weekend. Also, I fully expect Disney to announce the Disney+ release date for Inside Out 2.
Then again, CEO Bob Iger could do that during tomorrow’s earnings call instead.
Image: Pixar
Disney+ suddenly has two films that will drive Disney+ subscriptions toward the end of the year.
Deadpool & Wolverine is obviously the other one, but Inside Out 2 should arrive six weeks early.
Photo: Marvel
I’ve had late September circled for a while, but Disney has surprised me some lately. So, we’ll see!
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