Disney, Apple face off in battle of media titans
The giants are descending. Two weeks ago, Apple launched its streaming network, Apple TV+.
Tomorrow, Disney expands its reach with the inauguration of
Disney+.
There are a lot of differences. Apple TV was traditionally a carrier, a handy tool for iPhone customers to cut through joining multiple networks and filling out lots of forms to watch a program on their phone.
Apple was not a producer. It had to create series to populate its streaming service, none of the eight being knockouts that invite regular viewing or binging.
Disney is of a different breed. It has been producing programs for television since the medium’s outset.
“Who’s the leader of the band?” It owns the major network begun as ABC and still broadcasting under that name. It was early in the cable arena with the Disney Channel. It owns or has rights to oodles of material for streaming.
Even so, Disney+ is starting relatively modestly.
Yes, 7,000 television episodes, including all 30 seasons of “The Simpsons,” and 500 films are available for immediate screening, but that is mere fraction of the product Disney has at its disposal after more than 90 years as a powerhouse studio.
It also seems minimal when you consider it also owns or controls Pixar, Lucasfilms, i.e. all things “Star Wars,” Marvel Studios and National Geographic, each with reels and reels of programming.
Add to all of that Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox and all of its offshoots, and you realize all that can eventually be offered.
Disney+’s starting price, $7 a month, is less than most providers, but until it begins loading in the major wealth of Disney material and tosses in Hulu, which Disney controls, the cost may be more per program streamable than other services.
Disney also has contractual agreements that limit it fielding its full library. 20th Century Fox has existing contracts with HBO that could keep some Fox film content from going elsewhere until 2022, which it TV terms, is just around the corner.
The six original “Star War” films may also be in limbo, as TBS owns streaming rights to them through 2024. The “Star Wars” prequels Disney produced will probably be available earlier.
In the meantime, or as of tomorrow, Disney+ will launch a new series related to “Star Wars,” “The Mandelorian,” which covers the time between “Return of the Jedi” and “The Force Awakens” and is set in the outer reaches of the galaxy. Pedro Pascal, who played DEA agent Javier Peña in the first season of “Narcos,” stars. Nick Nolte, Giancarlo Esposito, Carl Weathers and major director Werner Herzog are in the cast.
Other Disney+ shows premiering tomorrow are a new series of “High School Musical,” one of the shows that put Disney’s cable efforts on the map some decades ago; “Encore!,” in which Kristen Bell is host of a reunion of adults who performed together in their high school musicals; a live-action version of the 1955 animation classic, “Lady and the Tramp,” using real dogs and voiced by Janelle Monáe and Ashley Jensen among others; “Marvel’s Hero Project,” which is different from expectations as it doesn’t feature Marvel characters – that will come later – but highlights real-life people who have made a positive impact on their communities; “Forky Asks a Question,” the first Pixar contribution with Tony Hale voicing over the spork character introduced in “Toy Story 4;” “Noelle,” a holiday movie starring Anna Kendrick, Shirley MacLaine, Bill Hader, and Julie Hagerty; “The World According to Jeff Goldblum,” which follows the actor on various adventures involving clothing, food, ice cream, and travel novelties; two children’s shows “Pixar IRL” and “SparkShorts,” and “The Imagineering Story,” a documentary about Disney studios, its creation, and its history.
Shows listed for future airing are “Into the Unknown,” a documentary about the making of “Frozen 2;” “Monsters at Work,” Timmy Failure,” “WandaVision,” “What If…?,” “Loki,” and “The Falcon
and the Winter Soldier” from Marvel; “The Clone Wars” from the “Star Wars” canon.
A different view
Television viewing was a little different this week.
Normally, I watch new programs so I can acquaint readers with the worthwhile among them and local newscasts to keep track of local anchors and reporters and changes in format.
This week, by mild surprise, I needed a stent placed in my heart, so I was more of a general couch potato than usual because my movement was restricted. That meant doing a lot of sampling and some reunion with shows I’ve watched often but not for a while.
I knew television offered hundreds of choices, many of which are too bland or formulaic for my taste. Queens filled some time, as I rewatched the first two seasons of “The Crown” in its entirety in preparation for Sunday’s debut of Season 3, this time with Oscar recipient and “Fleabag” mainstay Olivia Colman as Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II in place of Clare Foy, and on Netflix as opposed to PBS.
An actress who has been given an Oscar (2006) and a Tony (2015) for playing QEII, Helen Mirren, was, for the main, the element that made HBO’s “Catherine the Great” interesting. The script doesn’t grip much in scenes that don’t include Mirren, and history is glossed over to get to Catherine’s personal story. Other series have blended events and personalities better.
Amazon Prime’s “Jack Ryan” is too much like an ordinary overthe-air program to gain traction in the more complex, more sophisticated streaming world. Nothing in or about the show seems urgent, and the writing and acting stay on a basic level. The plot has some heft but doesn’t seem urgent (although I did like reading the statistics about Venezuela). John Krasinski has no edge as Jack Ryan while most other acting has the non-committal monotone that plagues network TV’s procedural shows.
A show I enjoyed seeing after possible years between visits was HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” which airs at 10 p.m. Fridays.
I don’t always agree with Maher and, at times, have found his knowledge of history spotty, but he may be the quickest mind doing political comedy, knows how to engage a panel without a bias in his questions, and speaks clearly, like a true commentator and satirist.
I was lucky enough to see “Judge Judy,” who endorsed lateentry Michael Bloomberg for the 2020 Democrat Presidential nomination. I also agree totally with Maher about Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg’s claim that Facebook is not a news organization but a public platform anyone can use and therefore is not subject to fact-checking or policing.
The last thing anyone should want is government goons, who usually have the subtlety of a sledge hammer, the intentions of a threatened rattle snake, and the self-interest of Narcissus, making rules about something that is as mercifully unbridled as Facebook.
Better that TV outlets that define themselves as news organizations, such as MSNBC, Fox News, and CNN, do better with fact-checking and defining more clearly the delivery of an objective
news story from the more prevalent commentating and editorializing.
In Facebook’s case, the reader has to determine whether what he or she is reading has value. Whether from Russia or from partisan groups I could name, much on Facebook is biased. That’s the
nature of the beast. That nature should be understood and accepted. One cannot be fooled if one knows what he or she wants and why he or she wants it, and what he or she believes and why he or she believes it.
I can shrug at Facebook. Reaction to MSNBC, Fox News, and CNN is more of a cynical sneer and a quick move to get my feet off the floor in case the crap being spouted on the air seeps beyond the screen and soils my
shoes.
Another politics-related segment I enjoyed was watching Democrat candidate Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) tear Joy Behar to shreds as the “View” panelist came forward with venom. Gabbard has as much chance as Behar to be president, but it was refreshing to see a guest not only stand up to, but to resist the bunk so often heaped on “View” visitors.
Also interesting on “The View”
was when Jane Fonda was a the guest, and Meghan McCain, daughter of the late Arizona Senator and Vietnam War POW John McCain, was absent from the table. I wondered whether McCain’s absence was sign of disdain for Fonda and her “Hanoi Jane” days. I also wondered if it was as a sign of tact that panelist Sunny Hostin also left the panel.
Local Buzz
Here are a few observations
from the local TV fare:
Channel 6’s Brian Taff maintains the great impression he made on me since he came to the market about a decade ago, Channel 3 weather anchor Kate Bilo gets funnier and funnier, and Channel 17’s weather anchor Monica Cryan - a Delco native - is one of the sharpest conversationalists on the air.