Disney Headlines for August 20th, 2024
This week in Disney Headlines, your favorite company takes two brutal L’s in a span of three days.
Fubo 1, Venu 0
Photo: Disney
Since February, the Walt Disney Company has been excitedly speaking of its upcoming joint venture with Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox.
Disney has lasting memories of August 2023, when Charter Communications poked the bear.
Photo: ESPN
That’s when the cable company went dark on all ESPN-related channels at the least opportune time,.
It was the opening night of the college football season, and angry football fans punished Charter mightily.
Photo: CNBC
The company would later confirm during an earnings call that this reckless decision cost them several hundred thousand customers.
Disney’s joint venture theoretically prevents any cable company from ever doing that again.
Photo: simplemost.com
Disney’s ESPN channels, the Fox sports channels, and TBS Sports will sell their own product for $42.99 per month.
This is an attempted cable killer of a product, which will be released in a matter of days.
Photo:Ivan Marc / Shutterstock.com
The three companies previously announced that the launch is happening in late August.
Since it’s August 20th, let me check my notes about the launch date and… oh, no. Oh, no, no, no.
Photo: Deadline
As MickeyBlog discussed the other day, in an absolutely brutal turn of events, FuboTV, an over-the-top streaming bundle service, has won a preliminary injunction from the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York.
PLOT TWIST!
What Happens Now?
Photo: Venu
You cannot imagine how much of a setback the joint venture known as Venu Sports just suffered.
While some are describing this as a speed bump that the companies will quickly overcome, the reality is that this one just broke a different way from what anyone expected, and everyone is looking a bit confused.
Photo: Venu
Venu had every intention of launching when the college football season begins on August 24th.
I’ll save you a glance at the calendar. That’s very, very soon. Disney needs to get this settled quickly, though I’m of the opinion that perhaps they shouldn’t.
Right now, the three companies have plausible deniability if they all shake hands and walk away from the deal.
NBA
Since Warner Bros. Discovery has lost NBA broadcast rights, they’re not bringing much to the table with Venu other than March Madness.
Meanwhile, Disney is readying its own over-the-top product, Worldwide Leader, the long-term replacement for ESPN’s cable services.
NBA
Disney has no need to be in business with competitors, especially not WBD, whose survival is in question right now.
So, my vote is that this judge just did Disney a favor. I doubt they agree, so this story’s about to get interesting.
Photo: Recorder.com
FuboTV, a stock that was trading under $1 last week, just kicked Fox, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Disney in the teeth.
The college football season hasn’t even started yet, and we’ve already had our first major upset.
An Allergy Tragedy and Its Unlikely Fallout
Jeffrey Piccolo and Kanokporn Tangsuan. Photo: NY Times
We’re about to discuss a story that I hate in every way. It’s a tragedy with no good solutions, only oppressive sadness.
Still, I cannot overlook this topic, as the story has quickly gone viral and is a Headline seemingly everywhere.
As you may have heard, a doctor named Dr. Kanokporn Tangsuan died tragically last year while visiting Disney Springs.
The doctor ordered a meal but first clarified whether its components included any of her food allergies.
Disney
After receiving assurances that the chefs had verified everything to ensure her safety, the doctor ate the meal, only to suffer a severe allergic reaction and die.
While Disney neither owns nor operates the restaurant where this happened, the late doctor’s husband, is understandably suing everyone involved. I don’t blame them.
Walt Disney Company. Photo: Disney
During situations like this one, I try to consider the perspective of the people impacted. If this happened to my partner, I’d never recover emotionally. It’s a horror story.
The fact that this story is real breaks my heart. It’s also challenging for me to understand.
Photo: Disney
I say this because I happen to have a food allergy, and I’ve witnessed firsthand how Cast Members react when you inform them of this fact.
In my experience, the server notifies the kitchen. Soon afterward, the chef comes to the table to ask for precise instructions on the nature of the allergy and how to proceed with the meal.
Dining Room
From what I’ve seen, Disney’s system is professional to the degree that I’m often embarrassed by the attention I receive when I order.
Thus, since my allergy is non-threatening, I often don’t even mention it. I’d rather not have the attention and willingly accept the occasional upset stomach in exchange.
Fire These Lawyers, Disney
Photo: Disney
That’s my reality. For Jeffrey J. Piccolo, the nightmare played out much differently. The three people at the table all noticed that the meal lacked the allergen-free flags Disney restaurants use.
When the party asked the server, they received assurances that the meals had been prepared properly. Obviously, they weren’t, which breaks my heart.
Pastry Chef Kristine
Disney is where we all go to escape our problems. Nobody should ever add to them while at the Most Magical and Happiest Places on Earth. Period.
Somehow, the tragedy is no longer the Headline to this story, though. It’s something indefensible instead.
Photo: ofx.ie
Disney would rather this case not go before a jury due to the explosive nature of the allegations. It would be bad for business. Alas, the Streisand Effect just came into play.
Due to some legal maneuvers by the attorneys representing Disney, an entirely new wave of people know all about the matter. That’s because of a trashy legal attempt.
Photo: Yahoo
The lawyers attempting to protect Disney’s financial interests just did exactly the opposite due to a reckless, recently amplified attempt to skirt the law.
These people claimed that the widower held no right to sue Disney over his wife’s wrongful death. And the reason why was because he signed up for a Disney+ trial in 2019.
Photo:pixabay
I wish I were joking. As part of the terms of service, the legalese virtually nobody reads, Disney’s legal team claims that the victim’s spouse cannot sue.
Fire Them into the Sun
Disney+ Logo
Instead, Piccolo must take his case to arbitration. Just to be clear, Piccolo isn’t even a current Disney+ subscriber and apparently hasn’t been in five years. He has never paid for the service.
It’s stuff like this that makes people hate lawyers, which bothers me because many of my dearest friends ARE lawyers.
photo: The Verge
They’re lovely people who fight daily to protect others, but soulless ghouls like this ruin the reputation of the entire profession.
This is a legal trick and nothing more. It’s someone trying to protect a client in a shortsighted manner. At this point, even if it worked, it’d be a Pyrrhic victory.
Photo: Disney
Disney had no choice but to make a public statement regarding this one shady legal tactic, stating:
“We are deeply saddened by the family’s loss and understand their grief. Given that this restaurant is neither owned nor operated by Disney, we are merely defending ourselves against the plaintiff’s attorney’s attempt to include us in their lawsuit against the restaurant.”
Photo: Disney
While I’m glad Disney led with the “understand their grief” part – we all do – the rest of this official response isn’t that great. It still reads as “But they shouldn’t sue us.”
Disney, you need to settle this and make it go away. This is a TERRIBLE look.
Thanks for visiting MickeyBlog.com! Want to go to Disney? For a FREE quote on your next Disney vacation, please fill out the form below, and one of the agents from MickeyTravels, a Diamond Level Authorized Disney Vacation Planner, will be in touch soon!
