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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Disney Splits With Netflix for Content Streaming

With its announcement that it would start its own direct-to-consumer streaming service, Walt Disney Co. will end its distribution agreement with Netflix Inc. for subscription streaming of new releases, beginning with the 2019 movie slate. Instead, the Burbank entertainment and media giant will offer an ESPN-branded multi-sport video streaming service in early 2018. The power behind the streaming service will be BAMTech, the direct-to-consumer technology and marketing spinoff of MLB Advanced Media, the digital arm of Major League Baseball. Disney announced Aug. 8 that it had acquired majority ownership in BAMTech after already owning a 33 percent stake in the company. Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger said buying BAMTech and its technology gives the company the power to forge connections with viewers and the flexibility to adapt to changes in a market defined by direct relationships between content creators and consumers. “This acquisition and the launch of our direct-to-consumer services mark an entirely new growth strategy for the company, one that takes advantage of the incredible opportunity that changing technology provides us to leverage the strength of our great brands,” Iger said in a statement. It’s not Disney’s first foray into direct-to-consumer streaming. In 2015, the company launched DisneyLife in the United Kingdom to give subscribers access to films from the Disney and Pixar catalogs as well as episodes of Disney Channel programs, music albums and books that can be viewed and heard on mobile devices. The service costs less than $7 a month. Marty Shindler, of the Southern California-based consultancy Shindler Perspective Inc., said that he is concerned Disney fans may become oversubscribed to streaming services as they “cut the cord” to cable and satellite services. “It would not surprise me, given the strength they have as a company, if they put some of the same product on one of their cable channels or create a new cable channel for those who may not want to stream it but want it available to them,” Shindler said. As for Netflix, in Los Gatos, while its share price has dropped since the Disney announcement, the loss of Disney content will not hamper it long-term. Shindler noted the company is making a significant investment into original programming. “If they can continue doing a good job with things like ‘House of Cards’ and ‘Orange is the New Black’ and others, I don’t think they are going to lose a lot of subscribers,” he said. Estrella Affiliate LBI Media Inc. has added a new affiliate station for its Estrella TV network. KCTU 43.2 in Wichita, Kan. becomes the 48th affiliate for the Burbank media company. The signal from the station went live early this month. KCTU will broadcast the news and entertainment programming offered by Estrella TV’s catalogue. “Adding KCTU as a new affiliate is a clear indication of Estrella TV’s momentum and rapid expansion, as well as its growing influence as a leading Spanish-language broadcasting company that offers high quality and relevant content to Hispanics living in the U.S.,” said Cathy Lewis Edgerton, senior vice president for distribution and affiliate sales, in a statement. LBI Media owns 16 radio stations and 10 television stations in addition to the Estrella TV network. Girl Guitars Tish Ciravolo was so incensed by an interview at Vice News about women and guitars that she needed to set the record straight. An interview from March with performer St. Vincent claimed that she – her real name is Annie Clark – was the first woman to create her own signature electric guitar for the mass market. But Ciravolo, who runs Daisy Rock Girl Guitars from her home in Shadow Hills has released mass-market signature guitar models designed by women guitar players, including Vicki Peterson of the Bangles, rockabilly artist Wanda Jackson and session bass player Annie Clements. In a press release on Aug. 3, Ciravolo said that literally hundreds of female artists have designed their own signature guitars, some for mass market sales and others because they loved what Daisy Rock does and stands for. “St. Vincent is not the first woman to create a guitar with her name on it for the mass market” Ciravolo said in the release. ““I wish VICE and (interviewer) Mary Choi would have done their research. Had they done so, they would have uncovered all the great women who were pioneers in encouraging other women and young girls to play guitar, in conjunction with my company.” Daisy Rock guitars are designed specifically for the female form and feature lightweight bodies, narrow necks to better fit smaller hands, and female-inspiring finishes. Staff Reporter Mark R. Madler can be reached at (818) 316-3126 or [email protected].

Mark Madler
Mark Madler
Mark R. Madler covers aviation & aerospace, manufacturing, technology, automotive & transportation, media & entertainment and the Antelope Valley. He joined the company in February 2006. Madler previously worked as a reporter for the Burbank Leader. Before that, he was a reporter for the City News Bureau of Chicago and several daily newspapers in the suburban Chicago area. He has a bachelor’s of science degree in journalism from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

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