As Netflix Locks Down Exclusive Disney Rights, The New Walled Gardens Emerge

Culture

from the meet-the-new-boss dept

Back in 2012, Netflix and Disney struck a deal wherein Netflix would be the exclusive online provider of Disney content starting in 2016. And while we knew that the deal had been struck, it was only this week that Netflix announced on its blog that the exclusive arrangement would formally begin in September. As of September 1, if you want to stream the latest Disney (and by proxy Marvel, Lucasfilm and Pixar) films — you need to do it via Netflix.

Given the popularity of the Marvel films and the now-annual release of new “Star Wars” titles, that deal has become bigger and more important than ever, making it a pretty large coup for Netflix. Especially if you consider that Disney is co-owner of Hulu, which is planning to dramatically scale up its own subscription streaming video service later this year or early next. In fact, while Hulu for years was little more than an uninteresting ad for traditional cable, data suggests that Hulu’s catalog is now much larger, thanks in large part to Netflix’s tight focus on original content.

And while this is good news if you already subscribe to Netflix, this ongoing quest to lock down content in exclusive arrangements has a notable downside as the practice expands. As Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon have tried to each lock down their own exclusives, finding your favorite movie or TV series has become a frustrating game of hunting and pecking to ferret out which provider has the exclusive rights. It’s also becoming increasingly confusing for consumers to understand when these deals expire; something that’s not effectively communicated by most streaming companies.

And, ironically, while many streaming video customers cut the cable cord due to high prices, exclusive arrangements are now forcing those customers to pay for countless streaming services if they actually want to access all of their favorite shows and movies. There’s a certain danger in replacing the cable industry’s long-standing walled gardens with newer, different walled gardens, and it’s pretty clear most of these companies either don’t see the potential pitfalls or, in a rush for eyeballs, just don’t care.

And as broadcasters increasingly realize they can cut out the middlemen and launch their own streaming services, it seems inevitable that the exclusivity wars will only get worse. For example, if you want to watch the new “Star Trek” TV series from CBS when it launches in January 2017, you’ll need to subscribe to CBS’s $7 a month, All Access streaming platform. There’s likely going to be a lot more where that came from, especially as Comcast takes a bigger role in managing Hulu (NBC Universal merger conditions preventing it from fiddling with Hulu to prevent anti-competitive shenanigans expire next year).

So while the streaming industry and broadcasters are intent on following the exclusivity concept deep down the rabbit hole, few if any seem to notice that while these kinds of exclusive deals may be good for one company over the short term, they’re not going to be great for the broader streaming industry over the long haul. There’s a lot of potential here to fracture content availability, confuse paying customers, and drive frustrated customers back to piracy after all of the work done to get them on legitimate platforms in the first place.

Filed Under: tv, video, walled gardens
Companies: disney, netflix