Why Disney+ may be great for Amazon
I think Disney’s Disney+ streaming subscription service, launching November 12th, is going to be a giant success, and not just because this feels like a turning point year for Disney, what with their movies including the Avengers and the new Lion King and the “Star Wars Land” opening,
For about $7 a month (all information here is for the USA), subscribers will (eventually) get access to Marvel movies, Disney movies & TV shows, 20th Century Fox (sorry, I still like the old name) movie and TV shows, National Geographic…it’s hard for me to see who wouldn’t want it. 🙂
Of course, not everybody buys everything they want, but I’m sure lots of people will get this in addition to other streaming services they have, some will get it as their first streaming service…and while I don’t think it will be a big percentage, some may drop current subscriptions and switch to Disney+.
Among those competitors hypothetically at risk?
Amazon’s Prime Video.
Two others? Netflix and Hulu, the latter now mostly under Disney control.
So, you might think Amazon would be worried about Disney+…people who pay for Prime Video as a standalone are paying more than Disney+ ($8.99 a month). but I would guess the vast majority of people who was Prime Video do it through being members of
Amazon Prime (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)
where it is included along with a lot of other benefits, but they’ve offered Prime Video separately for long enough that we can be comfortable that it is there is a market for it
However, Amazon doesn’t just have a streaming service.
It has the hardware you can use to watch it on your TV!
Fire TV family (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)
While I still sometimes encounter the mythology that Amazon is a “closed garden”, that it doesn’t want you to get anything from anywhere else, that’s easily refuted and has been from the beginning. That doesn’t mean you can get everything: you couldn’t buy Barnes & Noble’s Nook books for your Kindle when that was a hot and heavy battle.
But, if you want to watch HBO, Starz, Showtime, CBS All Access, and a whole lot more, you can pay for them through your Amazon account and have them show up on your Fire TV..
That’s what I think will happen with Disney+. I’m very confident that it will be available that way…why would Disney pass up a market which is now
bigger than Roku (Motley Fool article by Adam Levy)
?
It’s also possible that they will just have the app available to run on your Fire TV. That’s how we watch Netflix and Hulu…we pay those services directly, but still watch them on Fire TV.
In the same way that comedian Milton Berle (“Uncle Milty”) is credited with having doubled TV shows in the 1940s, Disney+ may increase Fire TV sales.
What do you think? Will you get Disney+? Will you drop something else…including Amazon Prime? Do you pay for Channels now from Amazon? Feel to let me and readers know what you think by commenting on this post.
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* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get. 
Shop ’til you help!
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.
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