Tag Archives: Disney plus

September 30, 2025 · 12:09

Former Tinseltown

Well, they just picketed for a better situation, then there is a fire and now President Trump walks in and makes a ‘proclamation’.

Now, we all have those rolling eyes moment, but I reckon this is the first time it will cost Los Angeles (read: Hollywood) will they have to pay an additional few billions and they weren’t going great to begin with (to no fault of their own).

You see, if we take a ‘few’ examples. We see:

Jurassic World: Rebirth$867,114,68260.8%
F1: The Movie$626,214,58669.7%
Smurfs$89,700,00074.3%
Inside Out 2$1,698,863,81661.6%
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire$572,050,01665.7%

Now these aren’t the big hitters, but the impact is easily seen. The total global revenue is seen and how much INTERNATIONALLY was brought it, so as such I reckon it is easy to hit those numbers with a tariff as well, the president said it was 100%? OK, that is what we will do, hit a tariff over (30%) it and I reckon that Hollywood will be screaming like a little bitch (or like a scream queen) for all that lost revenue. 

When will this president learn that gracing everything with a tariff does not get him anything, only handing the option for European Markets and Asian Markets to do exactly the same? 

And it is not the the world has alternatives, WE can get our movies from Canada, UK, Europe, and in streaming there is more then Disney Plus and Netflix. We can get movies from Shahid, ADTV (Abu Dhabi TV), Viki and others too and several offer free options. As such this was a really bad move as the people all over the planet need cheaper options and you just gave a dozen channels to branch out to Europe and the Commonwealth. So as interest in the ‘Americanized’ channels recede their advertisement money will decrease as well. So how was this a clever move?

And as I see it, Canada is happy to branch out, but so are the movie makers in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, that is the one move they hoped would come and soon there will be an influx of Arabic content in Europe and the Commonwealth. 

So in short, there will be a decrease in revenue to America due to tariffs, Advertisement money will go down and interest in American materials will also decrease. And as I see it, the others will also claim “Thank you for your attention to this matter” mister President.

A lovely day it is, I reckon I might get a few minutes of Schitt’s Creek, Dubai Bling or Qalb Al Adala into my daily watch scheme. Oh and these 5 examples might cost Hollywood a simple 735,798,409.28 (if we charge Hollywood 30% over our ‘brought’ income, so what do you think the other 360 annual movies will give to us? This tariff joke works both ways.

I reckon this might be the sillies move the American administration has brought to its own shores. Hollywood was already fighting an uphill battle, but this might be the traffic threshold set just before the top of the hill that will stop whatever they had going for them.

I reckon there will be a few rounds of Champagne for everyone in the Vancouver Film Studios tonight.

Have a great day and for the desperate American Actors/Actresses, please take note at (https://adtv.ae/en/about-us)., they might be looking for you, there is now too much competition in Hollywood. Oh and all this wasn’t a great intelligent academic work. Anyone with an abacus could have numbered this whilst having a coffee. 

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September 28, 2025 · 17:58

A few days ago 

A few days ago we had the impact of the ban of Jimmy Kimmel and that impact it had. Disney need to raise all awareness flags because like the little weasels they seemingly are, the subscriptions were cut. According to some sources almost $4 billion in subscriptions were lost. Some will howl with laughter, but the impact is a little bigger. You see, soon after that (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/disney-subscription-increase-1.7641020) we are given by CBC that ‘Disney+ is raising subscription prices for the 4th year in a row’, one could say this is exactly why I prefer physical media, but Disney wants people to ‘embrace’ Disney plus forever. That Will never do for me. So as the CBC is giving us “Starting Oct. 21, the ad-supported Disney+ plan will increase by $2 US to $11.99 US per month, while the ad-free premium tier will rise $3 US to $18.99 US a month. Annual premium subscriptions will jump $30 US to $189.99 US. Bundled packages combining Disney+ with Hulu and ESPN+ will also see price hikes, according to the company’s website.” This makes them more expensive than Netflix. We see all the iterations and the settings that others bring, but the short and sweet stuff is that there is a case to be made for owning physical media. You see, what these streamers seem to forget is that the subscription will have two sides. The subscription and the price of internet streaming. Some providers have ‘a tentacle’ setting that those bytes are disregarded from your internet subscription. Yet as I see it, when the going gets tough, those ‘arrangements’ will fall flat and the prices really will add to the equation. And as we are given “The price increase also appears to apply to Canadians. An email sent to a Disney+ subscriber and reviewed by CBC News shows that the cost of a premium subscription will jump from $119.99 to $159.99 on Oct. 28, though it’s unclear if there are other Canadian price increases” we see this setting (optional) in “it’s unclear if there are other Canadian price increases” but we need to reconsider some streaming solutions and weirdly enough. I raised that very topic in ‘Choice, can you choose?’ which I brought to you on January 9th 2021 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/01/09/choice-can-you-choose/) and there we see the setting evolve and I was only 4 years ahead of the rest. I also (not there) raise the setting that someone brings is a collective of these channels, because there is the setting that people are willing to pay $20 a month for both Disney+ and Netflix, optionally a little more for others to be included. So when you have Netflix $18 + Disney Plus $19. Would it be an idea to get BOTH for $25? (I personally would prefer $20), but that is where the setting is set. At present the setting does not allow BOTH to be included and in this time where (especially the Americans) will have to live on the Roman setting of Bread and Games which was opted be the Roman Poet Decimus Junius Juvenalis and as I see the setting where “Roman government used free food and public entertainment to pacify the populace and prevent revolts, a practice now used to describe any form of mass distraction that diverts attention from societal grievances” is pretty much what the American government needs at present (my speculated view). And as we see the settings of Army deployments in America, ICE dressing up like bank robbers and a whole range of other settings gives rise to my point of view. 

So will Disney evolve? Will we see the Blu-ray version of the Mandalorian? Or will we see the settings of accumulated streaming? Tune in next week when you will hear nurse Piggy say “Oh doctor, he is not 5G compatible” we look back and see how relaxing and entertaining the Muppet Show really was and we still remember that after 50 years these 5 seasons are still on the minds and in the hearts of millions of people. Well done Jim Hanson and Frank Oz.

Timeless humor is truly timeless. Have a great day and don’t get your coffee from the Swedish chef. I ordered it with the music of the Beatles and got a handful of those critters in his cup of Covfefe.

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September 30, 2024 · 11:48

Co inky dink

Yup, my previous article on comic films preceded a BBC article. Or perhaps better stated I saw the article after I wrote my article. As coincidences, go a nice one. The BBC article (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj6er83ene6o) gives us ‘Hollywood’s big boom has gone bust’, I have some issues here. The first is seen with “the good times ground to a halt in May 2023, when Hollywood’s writers went on strike” I resent the implied status that this was up to the writers going on strike. And as we are given both “The actor and aerial cinematographer turned his hobby of flying drones into a profitable business in 2012 just as the streaming wars were taking off. For a decade, he was flying high above film sets, creating sleek aerial shots for movies and TV shows on Netflix, Amazon and Disney” and “But rather than roaring back, in the one year since the strikes ended, production has fizzled.” This story isn’t giving us the goods. You see there are a few elements. One is saturation of business. First there was Netflix, and not we have in addition Disney plus, Hulu, Paramount, YouTube TV, Sling, Fubo and Amazon prime. Several more to follow but these are the better ones. What was one is now eight and it doesn’t end there, there are all kinds of digital boxes who keep tabs on it all. The problem is that income levels are still the same as they were in December 2019, pretty much in synch with the first Covid setting. In 5 years most incomes are either the same or ridiculously close to that and in the meantime the cost of living has gone through the roof. Housing has been raised in many places by as much as 50%, that is hundreds of dollars a week. Food has risen by about 5% per year. There is the larger set that most people can at best afford 1 digital channel (if at all), as such all eight channels competed for the same customer at the same time. As such it isn’t merely that production fizzled, or that projects were cancelled. There is a dwindling population that cannot even afford one channel. And to relate that to the present, Disney projected it would spend between $8 billion-$9 billion on content for its premiere streaming service. Now see that investment all whilst less people could afford that TV channel. This isn’t merely America, this is a global problem. Hollywood has relied on the old Roman principle “Give the people bread and games” and now the people cannot afford the games and more and more of them are falling short for buying bread and this is happening all over the world. So whilst we get “Projects have been cancelled and production was cut across the city as jobs have dried up, with layoffs at many studios – most recently at Paramount. It had a second round of layoffs this week, as the storied movie company moves to cut 15% of its workforce ahead of a merger with the production company Skydance.” We see that there is a lull in the setting of projects and the attainment that people are in the mindset of “things will go better soon” but that is not the case. America and Europe wasted at least two years on their ego all whilst the ‘customers’ who had the cash have vacated to China. I saw this happen two years ago, which is why I created a script that could entertain the Muslim population. And I was right that SBA (Saudi Broadcasting Authority) and Dubai media are growing like crazy, all whilst the American players are merging and buying each other out. I saw the same happen in the IT in the early 90’s with a Dutch company called Infotheek. On the edge of bankruptcy, they bought the smaller players and take that revenue as your own. It didn’t work then, I doubt it will work now. And in that light America has a second problem. Many players will divert to Canada as it could be an option. Many actors and actresses are Canadian, so that works for some. Vancouver is a new powerhouse in this and the more the capture the smaller the American pie becomes. As such the article is right, Hollywood big boom has gone bust, as could be the case for Hollywood fairly soon. And there lies the problem, an over bubbled industry, A premise of channels that ned to invest billions, all whilst there is doubt that the revenue in 2026 could have diminished by 20% (at least), as such who gets the money? Then in the past 300% on investment was achievable, soon it will merely be between break even and perhaps 50%, so how many investors will leap the fence to optionally Arabic channels? I made it clear in 2020 that you cannot bite the hand that feeds you, but did the American defense industry listen? Nope and now the Chinese defense industry reports a growth of 25% year-on-year. That is money that is not going to America and now the streaming channels are optionally seeing a similar move towards Arabic nations and India. So how long until the boom turns into a gap that implodes implodes? 

All things that have been out in the open, but the BBC overlooked it. It is a good story and it gives some of the goods, but it overlooked the attached factors and these are a lot more disastrous. Well, that’s it for now. It is almost lunch time for me, have a great morning wherever you are.

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July 28, 2024 · 11:24

As the idea erupted

This happens, we do one thing and suddenly an idea erupts. In this case I was thinking of the second script that I am generating in Final Draft.

It was a setting that made me think for a moment. And this setting came from the days of the Commodore Amiga. I even was working an reset emulated version of the game in Macromedia Flash, just 1-2 weeks before I suddenly was made redundant. I suddenly had to relocate from Stockholm to Gorinchem when I got screwed over by my previous boss. But the thought got to me and I thought “Wouldn’t this make a great small budget movie?” An ‘almost’ one person movie with its own narration. Most of the movie in a sort of CGI and an interaction with computers and a sort of deserted place. It might not be the Hollywood stage of stories and not really for the big screen, but an idea that a streaming company might like or consider. In a stage where they have to pump billion into material, a low budget might have a much better chance. They can test an actor or actress as well as the director and director of filming in a cheaper setting. As such 3-5 people straight out of film school. I reckon that Pedro Pascal, Tom Hanks, Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson and Steven Spielberg would be too expensive. But there are over 50,000 actors many of them do not have a place in Bel Air, not to mention of the amount of Directors in the field. New players have a hard time getting through. So, here the speculated number race through my head and now there is a viable setting. The stage of using low budget films to create a talent pool of newbies. You know people like Pedro Pascal had a lucky break. Considering he was the man behind Napoleon Dynamite (vote for Pedro), I know I can be quirky (read: funny) at times. Still the premise remains, luck isn’t always available so what then? I believe that low budget movies are part of that key and places like Dubai Media are likely to break through their own confinements and start breaking through into the West European streaming markets. There is an upside to that. When the current borders by Netflix and Disney plus start pushing their own limitations others could be there taking up the slack. You see one source is stating ‘The US will need 22,700 film directors over the next 10 years’, I cannot vouch for the accuracy there. Yet this implies that ever upper level University will need to fight off job offers with a stick for 100% of their art students. I nice setting, but not realistic. Adding a talent pool becomes essential and not merely for these people, they will all need scripts. There are plenty of them around, but how good are they?

These elements put the larger streamers on the spot and those ready to grow could enter new fields. This puts Dubai Media in a nice place and lets not forget iQiyi and Tencent Media either. America might hate all that is Chinese, but I reckon that Europe is more open to this stage. As the mindset goes that in the first century Decimus Junius Juvenalis stated “Give them bread and games and they will never revolt” It was around the age of Emperor Trajan. What strikes me was that no-one considered owning the bakers. It might be merely a coin per bread, however the Colosseum had 50-80 thousand spectators and that makes for a nice penny. And there were more places over the empire of Rome where these places had crowds. Being the admiral of baker makes perfect sense to me. Even today ‘give them bread and games’ applies but in this setting nowadays growing the streaming services makes a lot more sense. And there to centrality of content becomes a new focal point. Everyone is looking towards Hollywood, but there is a problem there. California is losing their focus, they are saturated, so new borders are required. The Middle East and Asia make sense and when Europe finds out that the American prices are getting too high the aforementioned three players as well as other other streamers will see their markets erupt. Not to mention countries like Indonesia and Bangladesh that over these two countries have a little over half a billion citizens, we see a disrupted market. All looking at California and Hollywood to hand them materials, but the ongoing mass emigration of residents and businesses from California to other U.S. states (Texas) or countries is about to leave California is a near desperate state and the desperate need to pay a lot more. That opens the doors for the Middle East and Asia to make their mark. It is almost the proverbial butterfingered aide putting all egg in one basket. 

All that came to me in a near instant (in less than on hour) whilst was contemplating a low budget movie. I have no idea yet how to do that (I have three other projects in my brains) but it is something to keep in mind. Considering that this setting will take time to implode (before 2026) I still have time and until the end of the year I need to focus on the next two projects but Residuam Vitam comes first. 

Enjoy this Sunday 

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February 3, 2023 · 22:15

Blocked by greed?

It happens, good ideas fall down merely by the setting of greed. I get that some people revere greed, they pray qt the shrine of coin to get more, forever they prey to get more. Yet what happens when greed gets in the way of a good deal? For that we merely have to look at the place where boobs and smiles are as genuine as a crooked politician trying to get reelected. The forever need to drive that movie that will bring in a billion plus and some make it. Some make movies that gets the juices of desire flowing. Marvel is an excellent example. But you need a small education in reality. You see when we think directors one of the most famous and most achieved directors is Steven Spielberg, he gained revenue of $10,665,089,317 yet it took him 37 movies to get there and there are many nowhere near as good as him. So how about that $1 billion mark? When we look at franchises Harry Potter might be one of the most visible ones. In this Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II (2011) is the only one that passed the one billion mark. Does this mean that we lower the bar? Not necessarily, yet that one billion mark is too visible, too much of an orgasm point for all the wrong people. All whilst there have been a good selection of options out there and they are overlooked. 

I mentioned before that the comic book called The Trigan Empire has every option with a right director to get to the high point, optionally with a blonde John Cena in the title role. They might not make the one billion, but they could make a massive profit, an amount that goes further than merely return on investment. There are so many others. There was Franka, a modern version of Brenda Starr, but with subjects that matter today, options that make women herald this next hero. There have been so many comic books in the 70’s and 80’s, all making a good chance to rake in the revenue and most of them not from the USA.

So why does this matter?
It matters because SKollywood is becoming a thing, because more and more people are accepting movies with subtitles and South Korea is producing more and more movies that are connecting to people, perhaps not in the US, but guess what? Over 2/3 of Hollywood revenue is often international. That Harry Potter movie only made $381M in the US, the rest, almost a billion came from outside the US and Hollywood needs to change steps and up the game because Korea (south part) is bringing people the Witch and more movies that are connecting to people all over the world. A stage Hollywood never considered is now becoming a reality. Who saw the Japanese movie Audition? That was intense stuff. Other movies like Old Boy and the ring found American versions, but non-Americans look at what is. You see we all liked the Departed, but those who saw the original Hong Kong version will find it lacking. Not the actors, not the script, but the original in Hong Kong just had that little more and Korea is producing a whole fleet of movies, as are several other nations. 

All this and then we get to Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus and a whole range of others. Hollywood gets 3500 scripts each year and 350 are being made, so what is failing, because something is, the revenues do not lie. So far this year Avatar 2 and Maverick were the only two movies I ran to a cinema for and that is over the last 20 weeks. The well is drying up and Hollywood needs to set the steps to new heights, because they cannot afford to lose more and as I see it pointing the finger at streamers is not good enough. Japan and South Korea have their share of amazing movies,  so it is not merely the materials. I personally believe that it is the process that is failing. People have the wrong mindset at present. It should not be what gets me the most, it needs to be what can I do to get enough and up the quality of movies, that is the real trick and as far as I can tell, they haven’t figured out how to go about it. My evidence? The Trigan Empire, I made mention of it well over a year ago and since then no one picked it up. Not Netflix, no other streamers and not Hollywood. But I do remember hearing all kinds of complaints that Anansi (American Gods) is too black, or something of that nature. With the quote that “Charles Eglee, thought Mr. Nancy wasn’t right ‘for black America.’” In this I think he should talk to the writer (Neil Gaiman), as we see that it is more and more becoming all about perception the natural outcome is that others will reject what is there and over 65% of the revenue comes outside of the US. 

I let you decide what you watch, it was always your choice, but do you want American gods the way it was written, or what some producer thinks it needs to look like? Perhaps some of them remember the Justice league movie and what happened in the end.

Just food for thought, in the mean time South Korea has a few new gems coming this year. I wonder how far they make it this time, so far their record is pretty impressive. 

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January 20, 2023 · 19:52

Betrayal by greed

That was what I was considering today (and part of yesterday). You see I watch a stream sometimes, but not all the time. I am old school (really old in one way). You see I like (actually love) my physical formats. Games and movies. I started my collection a long time ago with CD’s and VHS cassettes (ask your grandfather if you do not know what those are). Over time some VHS were updated to DVD and some to Blue-ray. That I where I am now, but over time the game changed and that was not what I was ready for. Studios to some extent betraying their fans, I saw some of it earlier on and I considered it a dick move. How could any studio betray their fans? Now there are two settings, the first is outright betrayal for whatever reason. Consider that in most places Stargate Universe was never available on Blue-Ray. Consider the Expanse an amazing series, but as the series is now in season 6, yet the fans can only get the first 3 seasons. Why is that? Then is a second setting. The TV series Lucifer. Now they have a rather nasty experience. They needed a new way to continue and they found one and it ended with season 6, only now can they get seasons 4, 5 and 6, however only on DVD. Only the first three seasons are on
Blue-Ray. There is some understand here because Netflix acquired the series. But why short change your fans? I understand that Netflix does get a time exclusive, they acquired that right and I do not begrudge them anything. Yet after this time, who not release them now? It has been long enough. For that Disney has another setting, I am not sure how to react there. They have their series, they have also acquired Marvel (to some degree) and even as the movies can be bought, the series on Disney plus (Mandolorian, Wandavision et al) cannot. I never saw any of them , so I feel uncertain how to respond. Those fans might have their own feelings on this. But when you make the inventory on what is there and more important what is missing, we get a very different picture, one where corporate stages are set on greed. Now this is not new or some kind of revelation, but in movies it is somewhat unusual, especially towards their fans. So what happened to American Horror Story 1984? I get that season 10 is not out yer, but the last episode was in October 2021, so that is well over a year ago. For me? Well, I do believe that within the next two years, when 5G is not yet out everywhere there will be congestion and it will hit much harder than you think, the streamers will be hit as well and as businesses are now set to exploiting the benefits of 5G, these limitations will grow larger and larger, as such congestion will have a much more relentless impact. Should it not be an idea to avoid pressures as much as possible? Now, that does not mean that the studios should bank on losses, but The expanse ended season 6 a year ago, is it not time to release those seasons? What does the maker want to avoid? I reckon that those who do not have Amazon Prime might not get it anyway, so why make revenue the obstacle? I cannot tell how many buy them, but I feel certain I am not the only one, as for some releasing them only on DVD, all whilst previous seasons were on Blue-Ray? Shame on you!

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October 17, 2022 · 19:55

The ranking of potatoes

There was an insight in July. In this I wrote “I sometimes get a month subscription to load up on missed things and I have to as we all have budgets. I reckon that the UK is facing a much harder time. When they get to decide on two of the items (Food, Rent and heating) Netflix will be the first to go, and after that cheaper internet deals” and guess what. The Guardian gave us 4 hours ago (at https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/oct/17/uk-homes-cancel-streaming-services-to-reduce-spending) ‘UK homes cancel streaming services to reduce spending’, all whilst my quote comes from Realisation, which is three months older (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/07/14/realisation-2/), so the issues given three months ago were largely ignored (like wannabe analysts stating that the loss of subscriptions were a mystery to them, or something like that). I saw the writing on the wall and the Guardian caught up three months later. As such I look at “total number of homes with at least one subscription fell by 937,000 from January to September” I see no real mystery here. As such we also get “The premiere of two of the most-hyped and expensive shows of all time – the $650m (£580m) productions of Rings of Power and House of the Dragon – failed to prove a big enough draw to reverse a decline of another 234,000 homes with at least one paid streaming service in the third quarter” yes, because these people really want to put their housing or food on the template of chance when it comes to a TV series and the setting that they are the most expensive or most hyped shows do not matter. People need to pay for food, people ned to pay rent and these elements were out on the shelf for too long. There is no real cap on food and the rent cap is limited to say the least. So these series miss out and those who have a few quid left, they will buy it when it is released on bluray. Which is given to us as “as cost-conscious households choose paying for essentials – such as energy, food and mortgage repayments – over home entertainment”, a simple part of the equation I saw three months ago and that is to some extent the solution I saw in gathering 50 million subscriptions. Because that will become a much larger station and it will get the one doing it $500 million or more. But then these people were aware, were they not? Consider that I accused Amazon and Google of letting that lie on the floor and three months after I stated the writing was coming to a wall near them. They did wake up and investigate, did they not? For all I care Elon Musk can buy it now and make life for them and Microsoft a lot harder. But I cannot do that yet, I am still awaiting response from Riyadh. So when we are given “The world’s biggest streamer, which has cut staff and become more disciplined with its $17bn annual content budget after earlier this year reporting its first subscriber declines in a decade, is forecast to add just 1 million new signups globally when it reports third quarter figures on Tuesday” I wonder if they caught on at all. More disciplined is a joke expression, it is like Google with their wannabe cheerleading “I am a lion”, all nice, but we know that the hunt is done by the lionesses, the lions just get them pregnant twice a day if possible. You see the lions are their for the lionesses the real hunters and “lions mate roughly every 15 to 20 minutes for two or three days—200 to 300 times in succession”, as such when you realise that what were the salespeople hoping at Google? For me the laughing matter becomes when (or if) Riyadh buys my IP, when they trump Netflix, Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook all in one swoop. I wonder who will be crying like a chihuahua then? Will it be Reed Hastings, Andy Jassy, Satya Nadella, Mark Zuckerberg or all of them? And it was not a hard equation, the fact that I saw this coming 26 weeks ago makes it that easy and there is optionally more, but I want to have a little more fun with this, as I should be allowed to.

The ranking of potatoes is not who is the biggest, it becomes a ranking of whom was the most idle of the lot and that insight might give you a few handles on where you have to go with what you have. 

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September 19, 2022 · 09:57

The new code 20

It seems like quite the conundrum, but in Caesarian code it stands for ’T’ or tea if you prefer. You see, we are all becoming less and less personal in our gifts. It is a card with a gift card and at times the birthday card is overlooked and it is basically a gift card. It has lost the personal touch and that is a shame. And that was my mindset as I passed a T2 site. There was no real reason to be there. I was merely looking at some stuff and then it hit me, what if you could buy an envelope with a congratulation card, a tag and choices and the recipient gets

With an optional tea choice. Is that not more personal? Now, I accept that the recipient needs to like tea. But the larger stage is that the people need to personalise whatever they give and this is an option. It might be 6 months of Netflix, Disney plus, another item. It is not new, inter flora started that concept decades ago and in the electronic age it got lost and that is such a shame. Why did we lose the personal touch? So in the T2 setting, the people fill in the card and it goes to the respective shop, they finish the order and the order is ready and personalised. OK, this does require the recipient to be nearby a T2 store and they have plenty of stores and it makes for a great international gift, especially when you consider the way some couriers treat packages (see YouTube). In this I used T2 because it is a clear obvious one, but the same could be said for Nespresso and plenty of other store chains (yes, Victoria Secrets is an option too). 

But tell me honestly, would you prefer a nice tea set (like above, if you like tea), or some empty handed gift card? Yes, some will prefer the gift card (EB Games) games are massively hard to plan for, the same could be said for Sony Store Credit (and some Microsoft alternative), but there is a larger stage of solutions and we drove away from that. Why? I prefer to do the legwork to get something for a friend, it makes it more personal and therefor likely more appreciated. In this I might be a minority and it is not the stage others look for. But should the choice not be there? Yes, I admit that there are issues and there are small pitfalls, but consider the gift for your favourite grannie, a piece of plastic, or a nice piece of china with an optional personal choice of tea? I know what I would choose, but at present there is no alternative to do so and that seems like such a shame, but that could merely be my view of the matter.

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December 28, 2021 · 23:36

Is there tinsel in this town?

We seem to get rather fickle on what we see on the big screen and the small screen. We are pushed from event to event by marketing trying to create the new hype, from makers hoping for us to indulge in a new taste of Tinsel and we are letting it happen, we are giving in. We give in too often and we give in to readily. Yet the danger is that in that stream we lose sight of the good stuff, we lose sight of what could be awesome. 

I am not debating whether a series is good or not, it tends to be set to individual tastes, but marketing does not allow for individual taste, it requires clusters, because it is cheaper to tailor to a group. The problem is that it works too well. To give this a spin, lets look at data

In a normal setting we see 

Good ratings – 23
Average ratings – 37
Low ratings – 31
No ratings – 9 
Total – 100

Now consider that marketing sets the stage for people to only see the top 25 percent, in this setting we see that those with good ratings does not cover the 25%, so some over the average series drip in. But marketing hands to us that those with no rating do not count and now we get a different setting through what some call user missing values.

Good ratings – 23 (25%)
Average ratings – 37 (40%)
Low ratings – 31 (33%)
Total – 91
No ratings – 9 
End Total – 100

23 out of 91 is now 25% and as such the threshold is made and ALL the average series are disregarded by the marketing department as as such they fall from your view too. The truth is a little more complex than that, but the setting fits. The problem is that YOU did not vote, 100 people voted in this case. But is that not based on THEIR personal preferences? This is in part the problem with clusters and statistics. Statistics have their purpose, I believe in them, yet if we do not see the danger they pose we will be marginalised into the outliers we are so eager to avoid. 

To see what we might love, we need to see a lot more than we are given and the cluster marketeers are eager to avoid that setting, they represent THEIR client and what that client is bringing and it is now, in the era of Covid that some realise that we are given to shallow a choice, it is the setting of time and the setting of available time that made us look around and now that we see more we wonder what we are missing out on. I personally had reservations when the Name of the Rose was redone a a series, but when I found out it was an amazing journey I took it in. A series largely avoided by too many for all kinds of reasons, but who of you saw The name of the Rose with John Turturro, Rupert Everett, Damian Hardung, Stefano Fresi and others? Explortion is the one thing that tinseltown marketing fears, it disrupts their clusters and changes the way we see series. We are already changing this through Disney Plus, Netflix, Amazon Prime and others, the setting that we pay monthly and get all they offer is a setting that marketing is not completely ready for, but in the era of Covid the setting alters even more, now the entire field is seen and it worries the marketing departments in entertainment, we have too much free time and still that same monthly budget. These departments now fear the power of Churning, especially Netflix and Disney Plus are empowered by churners and the field will get larger. Soon there will be a new players that offers both for a nice price and that is when the field changes even more. Channel Plus and Foxtel faced that stage around 1999-2003 and now we see the first settings where Netflix and Disney Plus might face it soon enough too. In this, I expect that statistics will play a larger impact here. It is nice to see these two players throwing billions a year, but the numbers do not support that stage and a setting where they can work on a 60%-80% budget and share the members is preferred to the stage of losing them. There is still Apple, HBO and a few others. And this is their fear, they claim it is not, but the numbers are out there, because if the others unite the idea of getting 5-7 channels for one fee will overwhelm them and it will cost them over time a lot more, all whilst they still fight each other with new and more exciting IP, IP I equalled in a mere two months as I had some free time. 

As I see it the numbers are working for me and even when that population becomes a whole lot bigger, so will the outliers in the data. I reckon that we will see a first stage in 2023, when 5G becomes a much larger stage and if covid goes on the way it does a change in 2022 is not out of the question. 

You can wonder all you want, or you can wait to see what happens next. In this stage that will work in your favour. In September we were given “Netflix is expected to boost content spending on an amortised basis by a healthy 26% in 2021 to $13.6 billion — and the streamer’s budget could hit $18.9 billion by 2025, as it increasingly shifts the mix toward originals”, now consider that globally, Netflix had in Q3 2021 213,500,000 members. How long do you think this spending continues all whilst churners are now becoming a much larger stage for concern? At $10 a month (and not for the 4K option) we see a monthly stage that goes around $2B a month, so 6-7 months for the spending and we forgot about infrastructure, under those spendings Netflix has a near balanced stage, a stage that goes wrong they get more than one series wrong as a hit. And there is every chance that 2022 will get more people to the cinema, covid might have stopped us, yet we never forgot about the big screen Tom Holland showed that much with his $1B plus view on the new Spiderman and more is coming. Netflix and Disney Plus are in a dangerous stage. Disney might have reserves but when you spend well over $10,000,000,000 there will be hardship and when you add it all together we see that the numbers cannot continue as they are at present, I hope you see that too and when the clustering marketing efforts fall away, when the view digresses to the stage that becomes smaller as time is no longer a luxury we once had, the stage will take another turn, at that point we all wonder what comes next. We wonder what will happen, we all do and that is fine, but in that stage Netflix (Disney too) will need to alter the game they are playing at present. I see no other option for them the game they play now will prove to be too expensive for several players in that game.

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December 10, 2021 · 20:55

What was old, could be new

I have been thinking of a movie, it wasn’t a great movie, it was not something Spielberg made, but for some reason it comes back every now and then. It had an impact and the fact that Jon Cryer was in it makes it an almost instant classic. The movie is called Hiding Out and was made in 1987 by Bob Giraldi. Nowadays with the digital era, new acts that allow organised crime to do almost anything, the cryptocurrency that is all over (and the dozens of alternatives), including OneCoin by Ruja Ignatova. These settings allows for a remake and the main character could still be a banker, the setting is almost timeless. I do hope that if this comes out that the makers will consider hiring Jon Cryer as the federal team leader trying to keep everyone safe. 

It is not often that a script that is not the greatest, turns out to be the timeless setting that can traverse technologies and generations, yet I believe that Bob Giraldi did just that with Hiding Out. There are more pieces like this and there is no need to look at them now, but the age of Netflix, DisneyPlus, AmazonPrime, HBO and Google Movies makes these options a lot more important. Apart from the fact that the script is already there, it could save these channels a lot by looking at hat could be great and there are plenty of movies that have a timeless character. There is also a weird situation here. These timeless works will never make the top 100. It is not distinct enough, yet in that These movies will be one time originals and that is fine. Yet movies like Miracle on 34th Street, the Mummy, A star is born and now optionally Hiding out are not the greatest movies, but they were fun to watch and they can be fun again. In the list given there are still two distinct elements. The Mummy was a great remake because technology and special effects allowed for so much more. A star is born is because the stage can be altered to fit a whole number of people and I reckon that (if we are till around) we will see a new version of A star is born in 2050. And I personally believe that 2023 might be the year to give us a remade version of Bob Giraldi’s Hiding out with all the financial bells, whistles and organised crime’s hardware to make it a success.

I believe that movies can be good, great or timeless and it is that third group that the streamers need. Those IP rights are either not there, they are no longer valid or can be gotten a lot cheaper than a complete new work of IP and that is what they will seek, as costs bite, as the competition becomes more fierce, they will all fight over the golden script, but one movie is not enough, they optionally need up to 50 each year and that is where a movie like Hiding out could find itself a second wind. Optionally with an altered Jon Cryer. And this is not limited to Hollywood, pretty much every movie making nation had a group of movies made between 1975-1990 that could easily fit the bill. I look at new IP and create new IP because I am a storyteller, but the stage is larger than me and I recognise that there is more and as such my mind went back to a movie I saw decades ago. I believe there is a setting now that this movie could surpass the previous version in greatness, in suspense and in appeal all elements the streamers desperately want. 

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