Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Friday, November 12th, 2021
Don't expect Hulu to be combined with Disney+ anytime soon. Plus, are banks still open on Disney+ Day?
Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Friday, November 12th, 2021. I'm writing this from the Twin Cities, where AllYourScreens HQ is just ready for the weekend. I had this newsletter essentially finished six hours ago. But technical problems.....grrrr.
HAPPY DISNEY+ DAY, FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO CELEBRATE
Disney is marking the second anniversary of the launch of Disney+ in the United States today with a flurry of movies, specials and one-off show premieres. Now cynics might suspect that Disney executives picked this date knowing that it came just after the company would announce its Q3 earnings and that whatever bad news came out of that would hopefully be washed away from a flood of free publicity. Regardless, there is an impressive amount of new stuff premiering on Disney+ today:
The streaming premiere of Marvel Studios' Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings
The Disney family-friendly adventure film Jungle Cruise, available to all subscribers
The new Disney+ Original movie Home Sweet Home Alone, a reimagining of the popular holiday franchise
An all-new original series of shorts from Walt Disney Animation Studios called Olaf Presents, which sees Frozen’s beloved snowman retelling several classic Disney tales
The domestic Disney+ streaming debut of shorts from Walt Disney Animation Studios including Frozen Fever, Oscar-winning shorts Feast and Paperman, Oscar-nominated Mickey Mouse short, Get A Horse! and more
An animated short film Ciao Alberto from Pixar, featuring characters from this summer’s animated hit breakout film Luca
A new short from The Simpsons that pays tribute to Disney+’s marquee brands
The first five episodes from season 2 of The World According to Jeff Goldblum from National Geographic
A special celebrating the origins and legacy of Star Wars’ legendary bounty hunter, Boba Fett
A special celebrating the Marvel Cinematic Universe on Disney+ with an exciting look towards the future
Dopesick, an original series starring Michael Keaton, which will be released in international markets as part of the Star general entertainment content offering
This flurry of new content doesn't change the basic calculus of Disney+. There is a perception - and it's not unreasonable - that Disney+ has grabbed most of the low-hanging potential subscribers in the U.S. Disney superfans, families with kids, enthusiasts of Disney-owned franchises such as Marvel or Star Wars. Disney+ has had a great deal of success with its Marvel and Star Wars-related spinoff TV shows. But you would be hard-pressed to name an original Disney+ scripted show outside of those two categories that has found any traction.
There are several reasons for that, but I think a primary one is that while a lot of Disney+ subscribers are there for the popular IP, they don't think of the streamer as a go-to destination for new material. That perception hasn't been helped by the fact that much of the "original" content has been brand extensions or reboots of familiar stories. I'm sure Disney+ has done focus groups on the problem, but my suspicion is that an unsettling number of Disney+ subscribers have been unwittingly trained to gloss over anything that isn't a familiar title. Which is a big problem moving forward.
You're going to read a lot of hot takes today suggesting changes that should be made at Disney+ and I guarantee they have all been considered by management. It would take six newsletters to unwrap all of the common suggestions, so let me focus on the idea you hear most often from Disney+ critics: why not roll Hulu into the Disney+ app in the United States?
The argument is that outside the United States, Disney+ is a full-featured service that includes adult content, much of it coming from the streaming service Star, which was rolled into Disney+ in a number of territories outside the United States in February. The Star hub carries a number of titles that are available on Hulu in the U.S. as well as Disney-owned movies and TV shows that aren't yet available for streaming here. So why not just roll Hulu into Disney+ and give consumers in the U.S. the same general entertainment experience?
One issue is about the technology. It obviously could be done, but most members of the general public have no concept of how difficult it would be to do well. The two services are built on two entirely different architectures and combining them would involved much more than just slapping a few thousand new titles into Disney+. To say nothing of the the challenges of integrating the Hulu Live TV service into the mix. It's not an impossible task, but it's not something anyone at Disney is eager to tackle.
There's also the challenge of the current contractual deal with Comcast. That company still owns a portion of Hulu and would have to sign off on the deal. An unlikely decision, given it would make things even more challenging for that company's struggling Peacock streamer. Yes, Comcast can sell its ownership to Disney and there is a contract in place for them to do that in the future. But Comcast executives continue to say in public that they like the current situation with Hulu. They get revenue from the Comcast-owned content streaming on Hulu and if Disney does buy them out, they have to do so at the market rate. So the more valuable Hulu becomes, the more money Comcast makes.
But the biggest challenge might be the existing content agreements. It's not just that rolling Hulu into Disney+ would lose the service its Comcast-owned content. A number of existing content deals would have to be renegotiated, including some of the carriage deals in place for the live and on-demand channels carried by Hulu Live TV. Once again, it's not an impossible task. But the scope and complexity of the issue can't be overstated.
And then there’s just the bottom line. Disney is doing okay with Hulu as it is and combining the two services, with all of the challenges that would involve, is a several hundred million dollar effort (optimistically). And then you have to adjust the price of Disney+ upwards, try to move over as many basic Hulu subscribers as possible to the “new” Disney+….the level of complexity involved would be insane.
If Hulu ends up integrated with Disney+, I don't expect it to happen anytime soon. But it's clear that expanding the mix of content on Disney+ would be a solid move. So what would be considered low-hanging fruit in the content world for Disney+?
An obvious place to start is the Fox studio library, which Disney acquired when it bought a number of Fox-owned assets. It's way too complicated an issue to get into here, but there is a lot of content sitting in the Fox archives which could be aggregated into the Disney+ library. An obvious place to start would be the extensive Fox library of classic movie titles. Some of those have already been licensed to other streamers, but enough exist that they could be collected into a "Fox Classic Movie" tab on Disney+. It's a similar situation with older television content owned by Fox (now owned by Disney). TV titles tend to be complicated to clear for streaming, but services such as Crackle have shown that it's possible to do it and being able to add a "Classic TV" tab that included lesser-known classic TV titles from the Disney. ABC and Fox studio catalogs seems like a project worth launching.
SOME OF THE DISNEY+ DAY ANNOUNCEMENTS
Since the newsletter is running late, I can add the Disney+ Day announcements that have come so far today:
* Baymax! An Original Series will premiere in the Summer 2022. The show is based on the character from the Big Hero 6 movie.
* The original animated movie The Ice Age Adventures Of Buck Wild premieres on Disney+ January 28th.
* The Enchanted sequel Disenchanted will premiere in Fall 2022 on Disney+
* There's a new clip from the upcoming series Hawkeye.
* The original movie Chip & Dale: Rescue Rangers is coming to Disney+ in Spring 2022.
* The animated movie Diary of A Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules will premiere on Diney+ in 2022.
* A live-action retelling of Pinocchio, starring Tom Hanks, Cynthia Erivo, Luke Evans and the voices of Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Keegan-Michael Key and Lorraine Bracco, directed by Robert Zemeckis is coming to Disney+ in Fall 2022.
* The Disney+ original movie Better Nate Than Ever is coming to Disney+ in Spring 2022. It stars Aria Brooks, Michelle Federer, introducing Rueby Wood as Nate, Norbert Leo Butz, Lisa Kudrow, & Joshua Bassett as Nate's big brother, Anthony.
* The movie Cheaper By The Dozen will premiere on Disney+ in March 2022.
* NatGeo/Disney+ original series Limitless With Chris Hemsworth premieres on Disney+ in 2022.
* NatGeo is also premiering the original series America The Beautiful on Disney+ in 2022.
* The original Disney+ movie Sneakerella premieres on February 18th.
* The new series The Proud Family: Louder & Prouder premieres in February on Disney+.
THIS IS THE STREAMING SHOW I'D LIKE TO SEE
As the streaming business matures, the categories of original streaming content continue to expand. But with a few notable exceptions - Netflix's interactive programming, for example - the bulk of what is being created for streaming looks a lot like traditional television. Which is fine, but I'd love to see streaming services experiment with the format a bit and this is an area where the current second-tier streamers such as Peacock or Paramount+ can make an impact. Some of these ideas aren't expensive to produce, even with the talent fees attached. But they have real buzz potential and that's what these streaming services need right now.
As you might know, Sylvester Stallone is returning to the Rocky cinematic universe with Rocky IV: Rocky vs. Drago - The Ultimate Director’s Cut, a recut version of Rocky IV that includes nearly 40 minutes of new footage, including a slightly different ending.
To promote the film, Stallone posted a 90-minute video to his YouTube channel, which is basically Stallone dissecting the movie, passionately describing his decision-making on the original production as well as the new director's cut. Honestly, it's really fascinating and even if you're not a Stallone super-fan, you'll be captivated by the discussion. Directed by John Herzfeld and shot entirely on an iPhone, the footage is janky and not at all the formal "behind-the-scenes" footage you typically see in these types of features.
Stallone provides a bit of a master's class in filmmaking, as he discusses everything from how to shoot and cut boxing scenes to the lost art of the montage.
Watching it reminded me that there is a place for this type of content in the SVOD world. It's not the type of content that helps with subscriber growth. But in a world where keeping down subscriber churn is a serious concern, these examples of fun, unexpected programming could be a real help.
Click here to watch this special on YouTube.
THE STATE OF NBC
I'll be participating in a conference call in a few hours with NBC network heads Frances Berwick and Susan Rovner, who will give reporters a midseason look at how the network is doing this season. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get a question in or not. But my question would be about the rookie show LaBrea and the lessons NBC may have learned from its experience with Manifest.
ODDS AND SODS
* Does Sinclair plan on taking Bally Sports RSNs direct-to-consumer via ATSC 3.0 broadcast?
* Disney+ has acquired the Sky TV drama Anna in multiple territories outside the U.S., including the UK, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, France, and Germany.
* The Sex And The City series And Just Like That will premiere December 9th on HBO Max.
* Disney+ has ordered its first Spanish-produced series, a six-part scripted biopic about fashion designer Cristóbal Balenciaga.
* Channel 4 has struck a deal with Love Productions to keep The Great British Bake Off on the network for an additional three years.
SEE YOU MONDAY!
If you have any feedback, send it along to Rick@AllYourScreens.com and follow me on Twitter @aysrick.