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Streaming Services Update

 Content May Be Removed

 I know it has been a while since I posted a review let alone any other content. The current events of today seam to be relevant for some commentary and facts. Netflix was the only streaming service for the longest time. I was mistaken back then to think everything they streamed would be there forever. Alas, my mistake was realized when I sold a TV series on DVD that my son had watched eleven times on Netflix and not once on DVD. Within months of selling the series, Netflix removed the series from their lineup.

 Fast forward to the likes of MAX (formerly HBOMax), Paramount+, and Disney+ (who seams to own everything these days) and now we see content you might not be able to stream anywhere else. In the case of Disney+, content you can't even buy on physical media so that users are locked in to their subscription plans. For MAX and Paramount+ just to name a few, sell their content on physical media along with streaming options on Vudu and Amazon. As for the house of mouse, we may never see the likes of Mandalorian, Bad Batch, or Willow outside of their service.

 This is annoying to say the least but recently, it has gotten worse. I was had Willow series in my queue to watch. Unfortunately, I never got to watch it. The series ended in November 2022. It was then removed from the service in May of 2023. Wait...what? You produce and release a series then pull it from any way to watch it six months after the final episode. Disney may surprise me by releasing the series on physical media in the future but for now, they simply removed it from anyone watching. I can't imagine it was received as well as the Star Wars Holiday Special to justify it being unceremoniously removed.

 The worse casualty of these companies has to the Batgirl movie. The movie was completed bur rather then try to recoup any funding, the movie was locked away in a vault presumably to never see the light of day. This is crazy but companies see the tax benefits outweighing the wants of their consumer audience. In the age of big budget flops, you would think companies would want to try a little of their investment back vs none of it. 

Current Events

    I blame a pandemic on all these issues and the rise of streaming services. Black Widow movie was a primary example of what can happen. Black Widow was one first movies to be release both in theaters and on a streaming platform (for a significant fee in addition to the monthly service). What makes Black Widow so interesting to today's writer and actor strikes is due to Scarlett Johansson against Disney. In the lawsuit, she was expecting a percentage of the movies sales as part of her payment. This is nothing new to some actors. What was new was Disney bragging about millions in sales from showing the movie on their streaming service while not paying Scarlett the percentage for those sales.

    The current writers and now actors strikes are about pay when it comes to streaming. This is reminiscent of the days when syndication first came out. Actors never thought about this much so didn't have syndication in their contracts for residuals. This meant that while a show was making money for the companies in reruns, the actors and writers were not seeing any money for their work. By the 1980's, actors were make sure to include rerun royalties into their contracts.

    I remember reading an article one time about Scatman Crothers, who did the voice of Jazz in the original animated Transformers TV series. His widow was still getting small royalty checks in the mail years after he had past away due to his voice work on Transformers The Movie back in 1986. What we are seeing today is the next level where writers and actors are trying to be fairly compensated for their work that streaming services are making money on.

    How are corporations reacting? Badly in my opinion. Removing content or even not releasing content to save money has begun. Where will it end? I don't know but if the old Netflix policy of removing content to save money is already getting traction with the likes of Disney, we may all be the victims of corporations looking solely at the bottom line.

The Future

    While 2007 writers strike only lasted four months, I doubt we will see that quick of a resolution this time since the actors have also joined the strike. The past has shown us that eventually corporations will need to negotiate if they want to continue to remain in the entertainment business. We can also see that actors and writer will start adding streaming royalties to their contracts. I do expect that there will be a much longer break in new content being released. One of the current casualties that I am most concerned with is Deadpool 3 that has just started filming. I expect there will be several delays for movies many are hoping to see in the next few years. 

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