Ive been eavesdropping on the latest Disney conference call for investors, and its the most fun Ive ever had streaming men I dont know in suits that I'll never be able to afford, speaking jargon and I dont think I want to understand. But a few key ideas were very clear, and even exciting. The TV industry is transforming. Through what's being called 'cord cutting' the era of broadcast and particularly cable TV is being mutated, and will maybe even be killed, by broadband over-the-top services. In simple terms, things like Netflix are taking dominance over things like A&E. HBO Go is a good example of an old media institution getting with the kids and joining the digital age, offering their show by digital subscription. Unsurprisingly, Disney are fully aware of the potential in doing this. Well, today's it's potential. Tomorrow it might be a necessity. During the call, Disney CEO Bob Iger commented on the possibility of launching over-the-top services for Disney product, the ESPN brand and Marvel productions. He even talked about how Star Wars might be a contender too, sooner or later. While there's no immediate plans to launch one of these systems, or at least that's what iger was implying, the benefits are obvious. Imagine a Netflix that contains all of Marvel's content, and has all of its own funding to produce more. And because there's not much content to go around so far, I'd imagine that a bundle of Disney, ESPN, Marvel and Star Wars all for one Netflix-like subscription price is a real possibility. This could be a real sea change. I mean, it was always going to have to happen one day, but here we are talking about it now. Exciting times.
Brendon Connelly has been a film writer since the early 90s, with time on the staff of Orbit Magazine, Slashfilm, Bleeding Cool, Den of Geek and many more. He's a long time teacher of film studies and practical filmmaking classes, and has directed music videos, commercials, short films and more. His favourite film is Terry Gilliam's Brazil, his favourite food is pancakes or crepes, and he tries to live his life by the teachings of Kermit the Frog.
