News ‘Swamp Thing’ series In works at DC Digital Service, ‘Metropolis’ in redevelopment

[Sci]

Their biggest problem was the pricing. This is a niche streaming service, regardless of what some may say. They're catering to only the fans of one specific genre, and their entire catalog is based off of one specific company's projects from that one specific genre. They're asking for $8 a month and struggling.

Meanwhile, fellow niche streaming service Shudder is just $5 a month and thriving.

This. The idea of spending $96/year for a very limited selection of films and TV shows built around one particular genre from one particular studio is just ridiculous. Everyone's chasing that sweet sweet Netflix money, but they all forget that 1) Netflix is over $12 billion in debt against $15 billion in revenue, and 2) Netflix established its initial value before creating their own shows by having content from a variety of different studios and genres. Really even the concept of studio-specific streaming services strikes me as unsustainable in the long run -- you wouldn't have gone to Blockbuster in the 90s if it only had movies from, say, 20th Century Fox, or to Family Video if it only carried movies from Disney, or to Hollywood Video if it only had movies from Paramount. The value of the old video stores came from carrying content from a variety of studios, and I think the same principle will ultimately hold true of streaming services.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

This. The idea of spending $96/year for a very limited selection of films and TV shows built around one particular genre from one particular studio is just ridiculous. Everyone's chasing that sweet sweet Netflix money, but they all forget that 1) Netflix is over $12 billion in debt against $15 billion in revenue, and 2) Netflix established its initial value before creating their own shows by having content from a variety of different studios and genres. Really even the concept of studio-specific streaming services strikes me as unsustainable in the long run -- you wouldn't have gone to Blockbuster in the 90s if it only had movies from, say, 20th Century Fox, or to Family Video if it only carried movies from Disney, or to Hollywood Video if it only had movies from Paramount. The value of the old video stores came from carrying content from a variety of studios, and I think the same principle will ultimately hold true of streaming services.

I mean, video stores would have been way more fragmented and not as successful as they could have been, but people would still have gone to them. Every studio (even Disney) already has a wide variety of movies in various genres. Even moreso today than back then, actually. Disney+ will probably have almost as much variety as Netflix, with several of the most popular franchises in existence as its backbone.

Ideally, for us customers, there wouldn't be so many different streaming services forcing us to spread our money around, but they will be reasonably successful to various degrees as long as they're well run and not ridiculously niche.

DC alone is ridiculously niche.

DC plus Harry Potter plus Lego plus Godzilla plus the Matrix plus Rocky, Mad Max, Pacific Rim, Oceans 8, Friday the 13th, Nighmare on Elm Street, IT, etc, etc, is not niche at all.

 

[Sci]

I mean, video stores would have been way more fragmented and not as successful as they could have been, but put would still have gone to them. Every studio (even Disney) already has a wide variety of movies in various genres. Even moreso today than back then, actually. Disney+ will probably have almost as much variety as Netflix, with several of the most popular franchises in existence as its backbone.

Ideally, for us customers, there wouldn't be so many different streaming services forcing us to spread out money around, but they will be reasonably successful to various degrees as long as they're well run and not ridiculously niche.

DC alone is ridiculously niche.

DC plus Harry Potter plus Lego plus Godzilla plus the Matrix plus Rocky plus Mad Max plus Pacific Rim plus Oceans 8 plus Friday 13th, Nighmare on Elm, IT, etc, etc, is not niche at all.

I dunno man. I think eventually people are going to decide they don't like paying for subscriptions to a bunch of different streaming services, and then studio-specific or genre-specific streamers won't be able to make enough money to keep going. Like, yeah, maybe Disney+ survives (mostly an artifact of Disney already being a monopoly), but CBS All Access and Disney+ and Shudder and HBO Now and Apple TV+ and Britbox and CuriosityStream and YouTube Premium and Warner's streaming (whatever it ends up being called) and Amazon Video and Hulu and Netflix? That's a harder sell. I think when that happens, studios will go back to licensing their films to streamers that generalize instead of specialize.

 

[OCD Geek]

I mean, video stores would have been way more fragmented and not as successful as they could have been, but people would still have gone to them. Every studio (even Disney) already has a wide variety of movies in various genres. Even moreso today than back then, actually. Disney+ will probably have almost as much variety as Netflix, with several of the most popular franchises in existence as its backbone.

Ideally, for us customers, there wouldn't be so many different streaming services forcing us to spread our money around, but they will be reasonably successful to various degrees as long as they're well run and not ridiculously niche.

DC alone is ridiculously niche.

DC plus Harry Potter plus Lego plus Godzilla plus the Matrix plus Rocky, Mad Max, Pacific Rim, Oceans 8, Friday the 13th, Nighmare on Elm Street, IT, etc, etc, is not niche at all.

Exactly. It'd be like Disney creating a Marvel streaming service. Or a Star Wars/Indiana Jones streaming service. Or a Simpsons streaming service. Why the fuck would you limit yourself to such a specific consumer demographic when you have the full force and power of the entire Warner Bros. catalog (Which includes HBO!) behind you? Even CBS All Access, for all the shit that it gets, wasn't dumb enough to be just a Star Trek streaming service.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

I dunno man. I think eventually people are going to decide they don't like paying for subscriptions to a bunch of different streaming services, and then studio-specific or genre-specific streamers won't be able to make enough money to keep going. Like, yeah, maybe Disney+ survives (mostly an artifact of Disney already being a monopoly), but CBS All Access and Disney+ and Shudder and HBO Now and Apple TV+ and Britbox and CuriosityStream and YouTube Premium and Warner's streaming (whatever it ends up being called) and Amazon Video and Hulu and Netflix? That's a harder sell. I think when that happens, studios will go back to licensing their films to streamers that generalize instead of specialize.

That's why I mentioned things being more fragmented and potentially not as successful as they otherwise could have been. But that doesn't automatically lead to outright failure, either. Most people will probably choose 1-3 services and stick with those, but they won't all choose the same ones, so the money will still be spread around reasonably. Many people will also drop in and out of various services on a regular basis (sign up for 1 month, or 3 if that's the minimum signup, watch all the unique stuff you wanted to see then cancel and wait for them to build up more unique stuff you want to see). Not to mention, sooner or later cable is going to just die off completely, which frees up a whole new chunk of customers that haven't even shown up yet. There will be plenty of money going into any streaming service that has a good setup and a broad/relevant enough catalogue.

Granted, not *every* streaming service will meet that bar. Some of them absolutely will fail. But the field is not going to narrow back down to one or two anymore. And WB's service is probably pretty much set unless they woefully mismanage it.

 

[Turtletrekker]

I think a lot of people are going to be jumping from service to service. I mean, I know I'm going to want to see Star Trek Picard on CBSAA and I'm going to want to see the Marvel and Star Wars content on Disney+ and Hulu, but I'm not going to pay for three services at a time. What I'm likely to do is wait until the entire season of Picard has dropped and then subscribe to CBS all access for one month and binge and then switch to something else for a month or two and then move on. Rinse and repeat. I probably would have checked out the DC service for a month or two at some point anyway. If it's part of a larger Warner service, so much the better.

 

[theenglish]

I just saw this report about WB reconsidering the DC service:

https://www.newsarama.com/45474-dc-...P61gYe60wF6miHakyUJ6U9MBp2zMYssSiIhaxoV4y68uw

 

[Grendelsbayne]

I'm currently subscribed to Netflix and Amazon. I stay with Netflix year round, but this is the second time I've subscribed to Amazon and I'll probably cancel it in a few months and resubscribe for a bit in the future again. Disney+, unless it's wildly disappointing or unbelievably expensive, will very likely be a permanent subscription for me. It could possibly replace Netflix, but even if it did there are too many Netflix originals that I would want to see to the finish of for me to never go back there. If I could actually get Hulu or HBO here, I'd do temporary subscriptions on them, as well.

And I tend to think that I'm generally less inclined to subscribing to all sorts of different things than the average person these days and I'm definitely less attracted to streaming/renting old things that were enjoyable but not my favourites. I'm also definitely less inclined to sign up for something and then just forget/not bother to cancel it after seeing what I wanted to see.

 

[theenglish]

I subscribe to Amazon Prime for the free and fast shipping--the streaming service is a bonus.

Right now I have three other services that I subscribe to but have considered dropping Hulu.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

I subscribe to Amazon Prime for the free and fast shipping--the streaming service is a bonus.

Right now I have three other services that I subscribe to but have considered dropping Hulu.

Yeah, the shipping thing makes Amazon a real wild card.

 

[Relayer1]

I can barely find anything to interest me on Netflix or Amazon but have access to both.

I'm keeping Netflix for the Marvel shows which are ending, and Discovery, plus Mrs Relayer likes The Crown. Can't think of a damned thing on Amazon, but I don't pay for that. And I'll probably end up getting the Disney thing for Star Wars.

A plague on all their houses !

Streaming as a model sucks and I really would prefer that it dies, but sadly it's the future. I can see a situation where everything is subscription and conventional programming pretty much wastes away.

 

[Gavin70]

I think a lot of people are going to be jumping from service to service. I mean, I know I'm going to want to see Star Trek Picard on CBSAA and I'm going to want to see the Marvel and Star Wars content on Disney+ and Hulu, but I'm not going to pay for three services at a time. What I'm likely to do is wait until the entire season of Picard has dropped and then subscribe to CBS all access for one month and binge and then switch to something else for a month or two and then move on. Rinse and repeat. I probably would have checked out the DC service for a month or two at some point anyway. If it's part of a larger Warner service, so much the better.

I think this is exactly what most of the individual streaming services are going to find. A bunch of in and out customers with no long-term loyalty. Pretty much impossible to make money like that. For a service to be worth having all year round its going to need a fairly broad catalogue. Disney+ looks like the only service outside Netflix that looks to have enough material to keep people connected long term.

 

[DigificWriter]

That Newsarama article pulls one short sentence from a report by Deadline and tries to treat it like it's some huge bombshell by taking it entirely out-of-context.

I would point out, though, that DC Universe isn't the same type of service as Netflix or Hulu because the television series and films that it offers for streaming are not its biggest draw; that may have been the original intent, but what actually makes the service worthwhile is its comics content, something that DC has realized and responded to accordingly.

 

[Professor Zoom]

I think this is exactly what most of the individual streaming services are going to find. A bunch of in and out customers with no long-term loyalty. Pretty much impossible to make money like that. For a service to be worth having all year round its going to need a fairly broad catalogue. Disney+ looks like the only service outside Netflix that looks to have enough material to keep people connected long term.

And once the other studios pull their content from Netflix....

 

[Kai "the spy"]

Yeah, Warner owns a ton of movies and TV shows, Universal has its fair share of a back catalogue of movies and TV shows. Paramount has a problem due to how Viacom split the movie studio Paramount from the TV station CBS, so maybe the parent company will eventually start a combined Viacom service, folding in CBS All Access, Nickelodeon, MTV, and so on.

 

[Professor Zoom]

Yeah, Warner owns a ton of movies and TV shows, Universal has its fair share of a back catalogue of movies and TV shows. Paramount has a problem due to how Viacom split the movie studio Paramount from the TV station CBS, so maybe the parent company will eventually start a combined Viacom service, folding in CBS All Access, Nickelodeon, MTV, and so on.

It's why in the past several years Netflix has been spending so much money developing their own content, and not going forward with content they don't own entirely--which is true of a lot of channels.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

I mean, Warner owns "Friends". That alone will get them a few hundred thousand subscribers (or an insane amount of money if Netflix is desperate enough to want to keep it).

 

[JD]

The pilot was awful.

Care to elaborate? Your the first person I've seen so far who didn't like it.

I wish they would put the bloody app in the uk already!

There seems to be question if it's going to continue at all, so at this point I can't see it expanding to any other countries at this point.

And once the other studios pull their content from Netflix....

I have to wonder if we might be heading towards the downfall of Netflix, and possibly Amazon Prime. For me the big appear was all of the different movies and TV shows they had from all over the place, but if the different studios are all going to start pulling their stuff to put on their own services, I'm not sure if they'll be able to survive just on their originals. I know they do have some popular original shows and movies, but I still have to wonder if they are popular enough to support the services with out the acquired content to help boost things, especially Netflix at the price it's getting to be now. I have to admit, if the price for Netflix continues to go up even after they lose WB, and Disney stuff, I don't know how much longer I'll subscribe. I also have to question how much longer the pre-Discovery Star Trek series will be on there, I was a bit surprised they didn't pull them off as soon as CBS all access started.

 

[Guy Gardener]

A lot of human drama about characters we're not invested in yet, incredibly slow pacing, all the while the swamp is raping people like the forest from Evil Dead 1.

 

[Professor Zoom]

I have to wonder if we might be heading towards the downfall of Netflix, and possibly Amazon Prime. For me the big appear was all of the different movies and TV shows they had from all over the place, but if the different studios are all going to start pulling their stuff to put on their own services, I'm not sure if they'll be able to survive just on their originals. I know they do have some popular original shows and movies, but I still have to wonder if they are popular enough to support the services with out the acquired content to help boost things, especially Netflix at the price it's getting to be now. I have to admit, if the price for Netflix continues to go up even after they lose WB, and Disney stuff, I don't know how much longer I'll subscribe. I also have to question how much longer the pre-Discovery Star Trek series will be on there, I was a bit surprised they didn't pull them off as soon as CBS all access started.

I don't think it will be the downfall of Netflix, but, I think it won't be as large and in charge as it is now. (I guess that's a sort of downfall.) Amazon Prime and Hulu had never quite gotten the same market share. But, I think Amazon Prime has somethings going for it:

1. It's not the only part of the Amazon business. It doesn't have to be the only thing that makes money. It's sort of an extra with Prime Shipping.

2. It has some original content, and while the other streaming content might go away, it is still a portal to renting and purchasing. And, also, to other streaming premium channels.

So, with that income, Amazon Prime should do fine. Hulu should do fine, as its under the Disney umbrella. At some point, Netflix's debt is going to come home to roost.

We'll see.