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Movies Television Entertainment

Netflix Signs Deal With Disney-ABC 212

Posted by samzenpus from the instant-goofy dept.
tekgoblin writes "Netflix announced today that they have brokered a deal with Disney-ABC to add their content to the Netflix library. The deal should add a substantial number of new TV shows and Movies to instant watch. The episodes will be added rather quickly to instant watch only 15 days after initial telecast."
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Netflix Signs Deal With Disney-ABC More

Netflix Signs Deal With Disney-ABC

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  • Can't Wait (Score:3, Funny)

    by citoxE ( 1799926 ) on Wednesday December 08, 2010 @06:09PM (#34494698)
    Suite Life of Zack and Cody, here I come!

  • Wow surprising (Score:5, Insightful)

    by grapeape ( 137008 ) <mpope7.kc@rr@com> on Wednesday December 08, 2010 @06:11PM (#34494726) Homepage

    Thats kind of a huge deal if it includes streaming. Just yesterday there was an article about how Netflix was non-sustainable because its deals were not direct with the content providers but rather mostly 3rd party like Starz. Guess they are working to pre-emptively fix that issue.

    • Re:Wow surprising (Score:5, Insightful)

      by omnibit ( 1737004 ) on Wednesday December 08, 2010 @06:27PM (#34494922)

      Er what? I think you misread what the CEO was saying (assuming the article you don't cite mentions it). Netflix was saying that third-party content providers were not essential to its success. [yahoo.com] At the end of the day, Netflix has the subscriber base and the cash rolling in to negotiate with whomever they want. It doesn't matter if they go direct or via some third-party route.

      At the end of the day, it's in the studios' or brokers' best interest to receive large slabs of money because content providers can double dip as much as they want. First the air it on TV (money), host it on their sites (more money), make it available to iTunes and other pay-per-view services (the dollars continue to flow), then sign up as many streaming services as those companies can afford (ooooh, they're getting richer) before releasing to DVD and syndication.

      Direct or indirect - Netflix doesn't care because someone will agree to those handsome checks.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by afidel ( 530433 )
        Yeah but Fox or CBS would have been much bigger wins since they have a significantly better lineups (personal opinion but backed by Nielson numbers).

        • Re:Wow surprising (Score:4, Insightful)

          by gknoy ( 899301 ) <gknoy&anasazisystems,com> on Thursday December 09, 2010 @12:07PM (#34502734)

          On the other hand, there are a huge number of parents who might sign up if it means they can instant-queue the Little Mermaid or Aladdin or Bolt or Monsters Inc or Toy Story over and over again for their kids without worrying about scratching up a DVD.

          The convenience factor is such that I'll use it even when I own the DVD, sometimes. Skipping menus and commercials and "don't steal this" BS is wonderful.

      • No actually you just assumed the wrong article. What I was referring to was this...

        http://gawker.com/5471943/why-netflix-wont-be-the-hbo-of-the-21st-century [gawker.com]

        Several others have been posted recently as well, mainly pointing out that the current deals allowing streaming to piggyback on existing licensing will be mostly dried up by 2012 causing netflix to have to compete with the big boys like hbo and showtime on a more equal footing as far as costs go. The current deal with Starz for instance was signed for

  • 15 days is quickly? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Yossarian45793 ( 617611 ) on Wednesday December 08, 2010 @06:17PM (#34494798)
    15 days after initial telecast doesn't seem that "quickly" to me when they're competing against the Scene which releases new episodes within a few hours of initial telecast -- sometimes even 15 minutes after. If they're asking for money they better think about same day releases.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by vux984 ( 928602 )

      Why exactly do I care to get a scene download when I can get a legit download a couple weeks later?

      • I agree with your general sentiment, but you aren't getting a legit download. You're getting a legit stream.

      • Might not be a factor for you, but it is for many people. This is why the DRM of a game is already somewhat of a success if it keeps the pirates (arr) at bay for even a couple of days or a week: many people want to play the game on day 1, and if they can afford it they will pay for the privilege even if they wouldn't, otherwise. Or so the theory goes. I think the same applies to TV series, particularly the popular, water-cooler-talk ones.

    • But look at what netflix is charging (even after their recent rate increase) - $7.99 for the streaming-only plan. Isn't Apple's service $1 for every single episode? (They're going to get blown away unless the reconsider that.)

      $7.99 is the same price as Hulu plus, which doesn't have any movies and still has commercials.

      Come to think of it, I bet Netflix will introduce ads with this deal... I sure hope not, but I have a bad feeling. It's Disney after all. They make you watch ads at the start of DVD'

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by h4rr4r ( 612664 )

        If they do any advertising I will cancel and let them know why.

        I will go to blockbuster or redbox. Any advertising would make the streaming dead to me.

      • Come to think of it, I bet Netflix will introduce ads with this deal.
        Of course they will. It's Disney. The shows themselves ARE commercials, for the videos, appearances, concerts, movies, etc. of the talentless hacks in the programs.

    • As Lao-tzu said (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Sycraft-fu ( 314770 ) on Wednesday December 08, 2010 @07:53PM (#34495714)

      "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

      I'm quite sure Netflix would be happy to offer immediate availability. However, they are fighting with a very entrenched media industry, an industry that regularly acts against their own best interests. So, maybe there needs to be some middle ground. Eventually hopefully it'll be immediate streaming to Netflix. As it stands, this isn't bad.

      Please remember Netflix offers five things that warez does not which make it worth paying for:

      1) Instant gratification. Netflix is streaming. You punch play, you are watching seconds later. Warez is all download. Now on a fast connection, the difference isn't a big deal. If you are rocking 50mbps cable or FIOS, you can pull down a 100-200MB file so fast it makes no real difference. However most people aren't. On a 5-10mbps cable connection, which is more normal, you can wait several minutes and that is presuming your download is fast. With Netflix, it just buffers for a second and then goes.

      2) Ease. Netflix is really, really easy to use. Very friendly for non-technically savvy people, and even those of us who are good with computers can appreciate the good interface. Locating and watching things on it is dead simple, and it has useful features like recommending new stuff you might like (sometimes people want to watch something but have nothing specific in mind).

      3) Quality control. When you watch something on Netflix, you get what you want. I've never seen its streaming to error. With warez, well sometimes shit isn't what it claims to be. You deal with idiots uploading things, jackasses who want to cause trouble, media industry spamming bad stuff, etc. Not a major deal but you can spend 30 minutes downloading only to find you've got something you don't want.

      4) Device integration. Netflix is available on all kinds of devices. Blu-ray players, TVs, etc. This is real nice for living room watching. I don't break out my laptop, just turn on my Blu-ray player and it handles the rest. Yes you can build a media center box for warez'd stuff, that takes technical know how, not to mention is probably going to cost a bit more.

      5) Legitimacy. Perhaps you personally don't care at all if what you are doing is legal or not, and feel no morals about downloading stuff you didn't pay for. Some people do, some people care. They want to do the right thing. Netflix offers that. It is 100% legal and legit.

      So while it isn't perfect, it is getting better and that's all we can ask really. Netflix has gone from a unique form of DVD rental service to one of the largest video streaming services in the world in only a few years. Now they are growing their content, and getting better time tables. If this keeps up, we hopefully WILL see a large catalogue of quickly available stuff in a few years time.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by PRMan ( 959735 )
        As for streaming errors, one time I had an indie movie that didn't have audio.
      • I would gladly spend 3 times the amount of time doing something else waiting for a download than to spend the time watching a movie that has to stop and buffer every couple of seconds.
    • Honestly, I have a few shows I watch the night of, or next night.. wouldn't take much to get used to watching a couple weeks out... Though sometimes discovering a series that's been on a while, and catching up on a few seasons is really nice.
    • Pardon my ignorance, but what is "the Scene"? I did a google search but I guess scene is too generic to narrow it down to what you're talking about.
    • Goes to show how we see what our mind expects to see. When I first read the article, I thought it said 15 minutes, and that made perfect sense to me. I even thought it was kind of fast, as I figured that licensing would make them wait an hour or two. But then when someone said 15 days is not that fast, I almost replied and told him "no, it's 15 minutes you idiot." Luckily I reread the summary before making a fool of myself. But having done that now...15 days? Really? It's available on my DVR practically wit

  • Hmm (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Quiet_Desperation ( 858215 ) on Wednesday December 08, 2010 @06:17PM (#34494802)

    How about all those cool Disney Afternoon series? Duck Tales. That Jungle Book one. Darkwing Duck.

    Dan Casltellana was a better Genie, IMHO.

    I'm old. :-(

    • I wish they'd open up the Disney vault for those shows. Darkwing Duck HELLZ YEAH!!!!! As for Duck Tales, bring that back, PLUS Duck Tales: Treasure of the Lost Lamp (one of the most criminally underappreciated Disney movies EVER-waaay ahead of its time)

  • 15 Days? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by webdog314 ( 960286 ) on Wednesday December 08, 2010 @06:18PM (#34494812)

    Forgive my ignorance, but why the delay? Is this "punishment" for not viewing it when it's broadcast? I mean, why wait more than 24 hours? If you are that much of a fan of a show, you're going to watch it when it airs, yes? And if you already have NetFlix, then offering it more quickly would just increase your chances of acquiring new viewers that might turn into fans who might just watch it when it airs. If you are already a fan, then it's just gravy in case you miss an episode. So where is the advantage to waiting?

    • Re:15 Days? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by phyrexianshaw.ca ( 1265320 ) on Wednesday December 08, 2010 @06:25PM (#34494898) Homepage
      Though I am a fan of a number of TV shows,

      I do not have a TV, or cable of any sort in my home.

      being that I currently spend months waiting for the shows to come to DVD, this is a LOT better than nothing.

    • Re:15 Days? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by MobileTatsu-NJG ( 946591 ) on Wednesday December 08, 2010 @06:26PM (#34494916)

      Forgive my ignorance, but why the delay? Is this "punishment" for not viewing it when it's broadcast?

      No. It's so Disney continues to make money from advertisers. If the show turns up 24 hours later on Netflix commercial free, then there's little incentive for somebody to purchase advertising time during its broadcast.

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward

        The problem with this thinking is if someone misses an episode. Fox had a similar system with some of their shows for a while and the result was that once I had missed one episode, I stopped watching the broadcast for the rest of the season since I wanted the watch the previous episode before watching the next one. By providing it online 5-6 days later, people can catch up last weeks episode and still watch the broadcast for the current week.

        • This has exactly happened to me watching Fringe and Glee. I've quit watching Fringe on air day, and been catching back up using (supposely less lucrative ad rates) Hulu. Glee I may watch a couple from the beginning on iTunes, but for most I'll probably wait until Netflix has on DVD.
      • So how about Netflix with commercials that you can get as soon as the show is aired?
        If I miss an episode in a season, I will have to stop watching the television broadcast altogether, and start just watching Netflix (or, since neither of those solutions is optimal, pirate it)

    • This wouldn't matter so much for Disney, but I assume that it's exactly that - punishment for not viewing when broadcast. I'm sure the content deal with Netflix brings in less money that same-day broadcast advertising sales.

      For myself, there were just too many shows that started this fall, and half of them may be crap. I'm following half of that half weekly right now. When they're on break, I'll go back and catch up on the rest. Would be a whole lot easier if those were just all on Netflix. A

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by spazdor ( 902907 )

      It's so they can continue to sell their content to "first-run" network broadcasters at an artificially high price, while doing a halfhearted bare minimum to be able to claim that they're playing nice with online distributors and trying to give their geeky customers an alternative to piracy.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dAzED1 ( 33635 )
      I don't have cable (like another commenter) but I do have a TV. It has a PS3 attached to it, and the PS3 has Netflix. I don't sit around talking about my favorite TV shows with people, so if I watch it a painful 15 days later - I won't care - especially since I only pop in to netflix every couple weeks anyway, when I've nothing else to do.
      But then, I don't watch things like "Glee" or whatever it is people sit around talking about at the proverbial water cooler anyway.
      • That can lead to awkwardness at times. I remember at a former job having somebody from the real NCIS show up and it was kind of awkward when I had to admit that I had no idea why anybody would comment on TV programming as a result.
    • It might have something to do with how long the average show sits on a Tivo, and how much ad value they feel there is for a show on Tivo vs. on Netflix.

      I know everyone fast forwards through commercials with DVRs, but even seeing the existence must have more impact than not having them at all.

      So, if people cycle through what's saved on their DVRs every two weeks on average, they make more in ad revenue if they delay the release beyond that window.

    • If you are that much of a fan of a show, you're going to watch it when it airs, yes?

      No, not necessarily. In fact, there have been cases where I have deleted my Tivoed recordings of a show that I liked _more_ because I knew it was more popular and would get on DVD eventually.. That was to make room for something else. Even for shows I like a lot, I often bank up MANY episodes and then watch them later. (Heck, I'm on 2007 episodes of Cold Case.) If more of the Netflix shows had captions (especially usef

  • Canada? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Guspaz ( 556486 ) on Wednesday December 08, 2010 @06:20PM (#34494840)

    What territories did Netflix get these rights? Because I doubt that we'll ever see any of this on netflix.ca.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Dave114 ( 168228 )

      Well, I'm seeing the press release listed in the Media Centre section of the Netflix.ca website. Not sure if that means anything or not. Has Netflix in the past limited the release of media announcements regarding US-only stuff to their US website or have they always cross-posted to netflix.ca?

      Guess I'll have to wait and find out.

  • Having never seen Lost, it was in my instant queue for a while, untill one day it just became "unavailable". According to Netflix's FAQ page, some titles may become available/unavailable based on deals provided by the content providers. Lost will be available again (I think tomorrow), possibly due to this deal. On the other hand, some DVD items that I have wanted to watch have also become unavailable, and will probably remain so for the near future. Specifically out-of-print anime items that I am lookin

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Yeah, you didn't miss anything. -1 Troll for LOST hating, but come ON people, it was the most pointless show.
      • Admittedly, I've never seen lost, not even one episode, but it can't possibly be more pointless than a lot of that reality programming crap. Especially the ones where they follow around some rich folks doing stupid things. Or the ones where they make fun of hicks for not knowing about birth control and tubal ligation.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by h4rr4r ( 612664 )

      As part of this deal do not be surprised to see out of print disney stuff disappear from dvd as well.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Adriax ( 746043 )

        Oye, the Vault... Worst part about working the music shop in disneyland, having to explain to people why the best movies were not being sold anymore. Hell, we got all our info on vault locked titles not from corp HQ or anything official, we used a 3-ring binder filled with printouts from ultimatedisney.com

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hazem ( 472289 )

      I've seen stuff disappear out of my "Instant queue" as well. In fact, I was just starting to watch Farscape for the first time and after only seeing 3 episodes, it was removed.

      However, I think even with the stuff that's removed from their streaming service, it's still mostly available via DVD. While you can get the unlimited streaming service for I think $8.00, if you go up to $10/month, you can get unlimited streaming and 1 DVD at a time. You may be able to get those out-of-print programs that way (if t

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by nebaz ( 453974 )

        I do use the dvd service, quite often. The problem I have is that Netflix does not seem to be restocking their less popular DVD's, and since DVD's wear out after being mailed around and seen by so many people, inevitably some items will be unavailable. (Disk 1 of a series was unavailable but 2-6 were there. That's kind of tough to get around). I had just hoped streaming would not have that problem, since there is no disk to scratch, yet these items become unavailable because of contract stipulations, re

        • I'm a little bit surpised that they don't have a deal worked out where they can just buy the discs they need from the owner.

    • Netflix is transitioning more toward a streaming company, but I hope they don't neglect their dvd market as well.

      I have noticed Netflix has fewer and fewer of the DVD's I want to watch; I have more in Saved than in my Queue. Am I the only one, or is netflix slowing down on DVDs?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by npsimons ( 32752 ) *

        I have noticed Netflix has fewer and fewer of the DVD's I want to watch; I have more in Saved than in my Queue. Am I the only one, or is netflix slowing down on DVDs?

        You're not the only one; I've had several DVDs moved to my saved section, after being in my queue for years (I filled up my queue rather quick, then let it sit for a while; what can I say, I've been busy). For me, I currently don't have the bandwidth to stream, so I hope they don't neglect their DVD side.

        • I upgraded to a faster Internet plan specifically to increase the quality of streaming and am very happy with the picture quality.

          However, a big part of the reason I signed up for Netflix was to copy shows onto the iPod my wife and I use at the gym. DVDs can be copied to it, but watch instantly shows cannot.

          • What about this: Get a Roku box, and use the composite out to a capture card. Record that input, and you're good to go. HDMI may work, but I'm not up on what sorts of encryption it may or may not have.
            • Ah yes, the "analog loophole." I do have lots of NTSC hardware, including a hardware MPEG2 encoder, but for now it's less work to copy 4 episodes at a time from DVD. The quality is also much better from a dvd copy of course, although that hardly matters for treadmill viewing.
    • It's available now--I just checked. Not only that, but it's in HD.

  • And around the world... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Rooked_One ( 591287 ) on Wednesday December 08, 2010 @06:30PM (#34494958) Journal
    the cry of netflix users is hear. I would hate to see disney policy in ANY way change netflix one bit.

  • I know the summary (and linked article) both mention "TV shows and movies" - but didn't Netflix already have an agreement with Disney regarding getting their movies quickly?

  • I mean, besides Disney and all that.

    I have netflix, and love the streaming capabilities. That said, it seems their streaming content is getting less rather than more. I had several titles in my queue that I was watching that are no longer available for streaming.

    On top of that, none of what I want to watch seems to be available for streaming.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Xtifr ( 1323 )

      That said, it seems their streaming content is getting less rather than more. I had several titles in my queue that I was watching that are no longer available for streaming.

      Um, they add and remove titles all the time. To conclude that it's "getting less rather than more", you would have to show that the number they remove each month exceeds the number they add, which does not match what I see. In fact, I frequently have movies that were in my DVD queue magically appear in my streaming queue (which is nice of them to do).

      On top of that, none of what I want to watch seems to be available for streaming.

      That sounds like a personal problem. I'm sorry your tastes are so limited. :p

      I actually felt a little like that at first, but I've become very pleased with

  • The main reason I've been keeping Dish Network is because my two toddlers love Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Now, if Netflix can ink a deal with Nickelodeon so we can get Wow Wow Wubbzy, Dora and Diego, I'll be set. And if they can get more adult content streaming (e.g. AMC, HBO, etc.), I'd be willing to pay up to $20 or $30 per month, even if there is a couple week delay
  • Disney does, after all, hold to their "vault" model of distribution - where a movie is only for sale for a certain period of time and then taken out of circulation for years before being re-re-released. Amongst others, Tron is an excellent example of this; you can't buy it in a store (Disney-owned store or not) for any price right now because Disney simply won't sell it. So if Disney allowed Netflix to carry all the titles they currently sell, it would be a nice library but it would be neither a comprehen

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