In this What's On Disney Plus Podcast episode, Roger discusses some of today's biggest Disney+ news, including:
What’s On Disney Plus Podcast
U.S. Senators Want To Investigate Venu Sports + New Australia Disney+ Series | Disney Plus News
In this What's On Disney Plus Podcast episode, Roger discusses some of today's biggest Disney+ news, including: U.S. Senators Urge Government To Investigate Venu Sports National Geographic’s “Fly” Trailer Released First Look at Disney+ Original "Last Days of the Space Age" Question Of The Day
- Duration:
- 12m
- Broadcast on:
- 08 Aug 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
I'm going to be talking about how some US senators are fighting with Disney over the launch of venue sports, plus also some updates on some newer content heading towards Disney Plus pretty soon. But before we go any further, make sure you do hit that subscribe button to keep up with the latest Disney Plus News. Hi, it's Roger here from what's on at Disney Plus.com and it's time for a quick Disney Plus News roundup. So let's start talking first off about the problems with venue sports. So this is a brand new sports streaming service, which is set to launch later this year and it's going to combine all of the sports content from Disney's ESPN, Warner Brothers Discovery and Fox. They have loads of linear channels all in there that you can watch and it's going to be priced at $42.99, so much lower than most other cable platforms and a lot of sports fans are looking forward to this because if they're only got cable because they watch sports, this is a great way of getting access to it. Now unfortunately, if you are going to get this bundle, it does mean that you're not going to get access to all of the same channels that you can get through cable or like YouTube TV or Hulu Plus Live TV and that's obviously something you need to be aware of, but the price is there. You're probably still also going to need to get access to Peacock and Paramount Plus to get access to some of our major sports, same thing with Netflix and also with Amazon. Now some US senators including Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have put in a kind of a recommendation to the government that they wanted to be investigated. Now currently right this week, and they've been in court, Disney and Fubo TV to try and get at the Fubo wants an injunction to stop the launch of it for the full. I kind of thought it would be out already because obviously the football season starts this weekend. I would have thought that would have been kind of a major thing to get it going for. Well, so they've got a few more weeks of the pre-season, but yeah, so there's a lot of fighting going on about the fact that, you know, a lot of people are looking at this option going, they're not being able to sell this on to other places. Is it going to increase the price then for other users? And it's just generally being considered a bit of a weird little situation and a monopoly. And there's a kind of two way sword of this of, you know, maybe if this was like 10, 15 years ago, this would have been a major, major problem and it would have been considered to be a monopoly of all these companies coming together. But the simple truth is we're in a zone right now where Amazon and Apple and Netflix are coming in, sort of sweeping up and picking up a lot of the sports content and spending a lot of money on it. And therefore some of the smaller platforms now, like one of us discovery and Fox are needing to like join up together in order to compete with them. And you know, you're not going to have, they say like 80% of like broadcast sports are through this one, new venue sports and therefore that could be an issue. But is that thing of like in the long run, is it going to be in a monopoly? Now, obviously if Uber gets this injunction in place, they are saying that if this thing launches, they're going to lose most of their customers, they're continuing to lose money on it and they're pretty convinced that that's going to be a big problem for them. That's why they're fighting with it. But also many other big cable companies as well are kind of involved in this as well. Senators are asking, you know, to get it to be investigated about being a monopoly. The trouble is, is the, yeah, I still feel like we're at this weird bit where you've got maybe some of the older ones, including maybe some of these senators because they're not exactly spring chickens. Looking at this for the eyes of broadcast television and linear television, rather than for the world of streaming, where, you know, it's all going to come down to, you know, who's got the rights, who's going to pay more and a lot of these classic studios are going to have to probably join together or merge together in order to compete with big boys like Netflix, Amazon, Apple, et cetera. There'll be a lot of big pots there. Now whether or not this thing goes through, I think there's a lot of heat on this platform. They did state right from the word go, that it's obviously down to regulatory approval. I wouldn't be surprised if the injunction came to, was actually to stop, was able to stop it, you know, for further investigations. Now, Disney are planning on launching a full version of ESPN streaming service next year, where they'll have all their live stuff as well. On there, that'll all be like involved with Disney Plus as well. So they can kind of edge their bets. I always feel like venue sports feels like a stop gap and something that they're just going to be using just to kind of fill in while we're in this like awkward stage between like cable dying and streaming taking over. The big question as well is if venue does go through and it gets successful, could Disney like shift people to that rather than Hulu live TV and kind of closed down one platform? They recently lost 100,000 subscribers on the live side of things. That just is not really kind of going out, but it's just kind of, and they're all struggling while YouTube TV kind of builds up. But a lot of people that sort of drop a sort of cable go on to these like live streaming services like that for temporarily. And if this sports platform runs, you know, and it keeps going for at least for a couple of years, people will be more likely to use it. It will save a lot of money and a lot of people will get rid of cable if they could get access to venue sports. So there's counter arguments and stuff, but either way, it's getting a lot of attention. That's not necessarily a good thing. This thing is still for the pieces at the ends. Who knows? But let me know your thoughts. Are you interested in venue sports? Do you think it's a good thing? I'm not. I'd love to hear your thoughts on that in the comments below. Good thing is now, let's talk about a brand new documentary from National Geographic called base, which is actually going to be coming to IMAX features for two days on the second and third of September before then coming on to the National Geographic channel and also on to Hulu and on Disney Plus later that month, so I'll be dropping on the National Geographic channel on September the 24th and then we'll stream the next day on Disney Plus and Hulu. No international release date yet has been confirmed. This brand new film takes the viewers on a journey into the exhilarating yet perilous world of base jumping and it follows three different couples who are all kind of going through different stages and are tested by Triumph and tragedy and through breathtaking aerial footage along with some amazing scenes and interviews, film explores the balance between passion and sacrifice and also includes a love story for those who defy gravity. Now this trailer, I thought it looks really interesting in terms of how it looks. It looks pretty scary, you know, it's definitely going to get your heart going. Now I have seen some base jumping. I remember we were traveling across the US a long time ago, I think it was in Idaho and someone just jumped off the load of people just jumped off this bridge. It was scary because I've never seen anything like it. I was seeing base jumping and I think actually the bridge, whether or not it's the same one, I know it's one that a lot of people use and yeah, it's very interesting to see this kind of thing. Also with skydiving, I have done skydiving once, I did it for once for charity a long time ago and I had never to live again. It's a bucket list thing to do but it's something I never want to do. So there's that kind of thing of like looking at this going, whew, yeah, I definitely want to check it out when it drops onto Disney Plus but obviously while watching it and I like Max Theatre, if you're into base jumping or skydiving or just want to have something really kind of different to watch, this might be something of interest. But let me know if you're going to be checking out Fly in the comments below. Shifting gears, now let's talk about brand new Australian series called Last Days of the Space Age. So this one was filmed in Western Australia, a lovely part of the world. Set in 1979 in Western Australia with a global beauty pageant contest creating a media frenzy and a power strike that has threatened to plunge the region's darkness. History is at a turning point but nothing compared to the drama, the seemingly ordinary families are enduring in a town that will never be the same. So this one here is going to be dropping on to Disney Plus in Australia and also on to Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus in the United States. On the second of October, it's also going to be coming out on Disney Plus internationally. I'm guessing it's going to be the same day, it's a little bit here in Miss but we know it's going to be coming. I'm looking forward to watching this, a different series. I think this is the great thing about having originals coming from around the world, telling different stories, setting different locations and doing things a little bit different. Not everything has to be set in the US. I love the idea of exploring in the 1970s in Western Australia. It is very, very different to anywhere else and I love the idea of them just kind of going in there and kind of giving us different stories. I think that's a great thing for Disney to do. I would like to see more of it, it does feel like we've kind of seen a lot of this stuff kind of fall into an end but hopefully we'll see a little bit more of it. People would check this one out but maybe not for everyone but it's nice to see a new drama series and all of the episodes will be dropping out once. Let us know if you're going to be checking out this new Australian original series in the comments below. Actually today which comes from Norfolk Pyro says, "Do you think in 10 years time in the US and in the UK will have free streaming service like Netflix, Disney Plus and one with Max and one with Paramount or something?" No, I don't know necessarily if there's just going to be free and if I was to pick free, I think it would be Amazon, Netflix and Disney. I think those are the three cool ones that I think are going to be big enough to be able to survive on a grand scale. I think Apple TV has a chance to kind of continue to be plodding along while Apple is still happy to put some money into it and they're also investing in the whole kind of Apple One program where you get your magazines and your music and you get his cloud storage or the rest of it. So that one's got maybe a chance to kind of continue on but I do think Max is in a bit of a situation where the company is not very good, I mean they just literally like wrote off like nearly 10 billion worth of content from their library and like linear channels and stuff. So they're not in a good spot, Paramount's about to get brought up. I don't think there's enough places for all of this stuff to be, have separate streaming services. I think we're only going to likely just subscribe to a few and I do think the bundles are a way of kind of getting you to lock into them but I don't think there's, I think is that kind of weird thing as well of how many apps do you want to flick through. Now I know myself, I sit there at night, I flick through BBC and then I go for ITV and then I go for Channel 4 and Disney Plus and Netflix and Paramount and I don't even have Amazon or you know and like I don't know I've got Apple TV as well and you flick through the app see if there's anything new and then you kind of, then you go on and it's kind of you know it's not the great fit. So the idea of getting you into one app and then you just go from one show to another because that's generally what, quite often I'll end up doing it's like last night, it was a bit of a BBC night as I got in there watched a few shows but I think there is going to be a limit to how many sort of different subscription services people will use and I think you know obviously I think when Disney get their app together and sort out what they're doing with Hulu, get a single app and then you've got your ABC news in there and then you've got your ESPN, they've got one app with all of that content that's going to be a good option. I think Comcast is in a weird situation as well with Peacock where they're still clinging desperately to the idea of cable and sky and satellite and all this kind of stuff and they don't seem to be fully like almost like they'll be quite happy just to be an internet company. It's a bit weird with them and I just don't know it just feels like you know they're definitely in like four fifth spot here in the UK and I just don't know they just don't seem to be like fully committed to going because they still got one foot with cable and still being a provider and I think that's where they kind of want to keep that going for a little bit longer. But I think the longer this goes on they're going to fall forever and forever and forever behind because the other big boys are kind of coming in and doing stuff. But yeah I do think Max and Paramount will end up going to sell content I think most of the other ones stars etc they'll all eventually just go into selling content to the big boys. The good thing is if you've got like Disney Netflix and Amazon is just top three and they're like say they're the only ones that survive. The good thing is for us as consumers is they're still going to be competition between those three. They're all going to be fighting for us they're all going to be fighting amongst themselves to get hold of the big new shows and getting the talent and stuff. So they're still going to be competition it's just the era of where we used to think of you know like you know like NBC versus ABC versus CBS well that's all going to shift and we're now going to have a new set of ones. And I definitely think Disney's going to be one of them they are kind of ramping up to be one of those ones with the combined forces which isn't it's like really awkward stage where they're just going to merge them together but I'd love to know your thoughts which free streaming services do you think will be around in three years I'd love to hear your thoughts on this in the comments below go check us out over at what's on Disney plus com like follow and subscribe and I'll see you guys soon ladies. . . . . . You [ Silence ]