Disney Shutters Several Streaming Apps
By Movieguide® Contributor
Disney announced it would be shutting down several of its tangential streaming apps as it works to push more customers to Disney+ and Hulu.
Five streaming apps are getting the axe, though much of their content will be available on other Disney-owned streaming sites. ABC, DisneyNOW, Freeform, FXNow and Nat Geo TV will no longer be available on smart TVs or mobile devices starting Sept. 23. Their content will still be available on desktops, however, and much of the content will migrate onto Disney+ or Hulu.
This change will have a massive impact on consumers who pay for cable but do not currently subscribe to Disney+ or Hulu, taking away their ability to stream these channels as a part of their cable package.
This decision comes as Disney looks to consolidate its streaming efforts and push more subscribers toward its two premiere offerings.
Many other legacy media companies have executed similar changes this year, ending support for their smaller platforms in favor of their larger ones. Warner Bros. Discovery, for example, recently announced it would be disbanding its Cartoon Network-centric streaming service Boomerang, though much of that content would soon be available on Max.
Paramount made a similar move earlier this summer, ending its Nickelodeon-based streaming platform, Noggin, as well as Comedy Central and MTV streaming sites, with all three being reincorporated onto Paramount+.
These changes allow the studios to cut down on costs while also boosting subscriber numbers for their main services, both of which are appealing to Wall Street. Though they may be annoying for some consumers, it is only through these methods that streaming services will be able to find a consistent profit. The disbanding of these services also represents the first stage in the streaming industry shrinking after years of growth that led to the unsustainable environment that currently exists.
Movieguide® previously reported:
YouTube accounts for 10% of total TV viewing for the first time, and its impact on the industry is being felt, particularly within kids’ content where traditional streamers are beginning to pull back.
YouTube’s dominance in the streaming industry is undeniable. Though the public may not have thought about it in the same league as Netflix until recently, it has topped streaming TV viewership for nearly two straight years. That dominance is now beginning to exert pressure on competing companies, especially within its most popular demographic: Kids.
Within the past year, Cartoon Network’s and Nickelodeon’s standalone streaming platforms, Boomerang and Noggin, respectively, were shut down. While these are two titans in the realm of children’s content, they haven’t been able to compete with the dominance that YouTube has reached for this key demographic.
Boomerang was thus disbanded and its content was incorporated onto Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max, while Noggin is in the process of shutting down, and most of its content is already available on Paramount+. Even Disney’s children’s content has struggled to attract the audience it needs, causing the company to incorporate more adult content onto Disney+ and offering some shows originally made for Hulu to offer value to an older audience.
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