At the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media’s communications and entertainment conference last week Bob Iger delivered a fatal blow to the future of Netflix. The Disney CEO announced during a Q&A period that Disney will be pulling all Marvel and Lucasfilm movies from the app. These films will appear exclusively on #Disney's new app, which is expected to launch in late 2019.
All Disney movies leaving Netflix
This announcement comes hot on the heels of Disney announcing they would be pulling all Disney and Pixar content from the streaming service, which was announced during Disney's earnings call last month.
That news was bad enough for Netflix, but now that the "Star Wars" and "Marvel" movies are leaving things are even worse for the streaming giant.
One has to wonder if perhaps it will end up going the way of Blockbuster. The sad reality is that Netflix owns very few of its original shows. "Netflix Originals" are the reason people subscribe, but what would happen if those shows leave, too?
Content wars incoming
Hit shows like "Master of None," "House of Cards" and "Orange is the New Black" don't actually belong to Netflix. It simply acts as a distributor for those shows, which are owned by other companies like Universal, Sony, and Lionsgate. With Disney deciding to pull all of its content, what's to stop others from pulling their content?
Every corporation is going to want to start their own app, and that means Netflix will have to play catch-up.
To be fair, the company has been preparing for this eventuality. It recently bought Millarworld, which was clearly a sign that one day Disney might pull the Marvel TV shows, too. Iger has said that shows like "Daredevil," "Luke Cage," "Jessica Jones," the "Punisher" and "Iron Fist" will be staying on Netflix for now.
The key words there are "for now." It doesn't take a genius to see that "Daredevil" will be leaving in due time.
Netflix is trying to become Disney
Many in the media and financial analysts, in particular, think that Disney is trying to be like Netflix by starting its own app, but actually, the opposite is true. With its purchase of Millarworld and foray into merchandising for properties like "Stranger Things" and "Bojack Horseman," it is clear that Netflix wants to be like Disney.
The company wants to be a content creator like Disney, but it is probably too little too late. Disney has a 100-year start, and the shows that Netflix actually produces in-house have not been met with the critical acclaim and popularity of shows like "Daredevil" and "House of Cards." The future for Netflix looks very dim.
