Today, Bob Iger:
Disney CEO Bob Iger said today at D9 to expect a new Disney.com content site within a year.
This “uber network” for the Walt Disney Company will be a home “for people to consume our content directly,” Iger said.
The site will have gaming and streaming video content, and will be monetized by a subscription service, advertising, pay-per-view, and even micropayments, according to Iger. (To be sure, he didn’t say that all this would be live within 12 months, but rather “elements of the relaunch.”)
…Iger said of sites like Netflix and Hulu, “The more distributors the merrier–it keeps them all honest.”
…Of Netflix specifically, Iger said, “I’m not in the camp that believes Netflix is going to own the world. I don’t think that’s possible in today’s world.”
Yesterday, Reed Hastings:
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings won’t say exactly how much it’s going to cost his company to renew its 2008 licensing deal with the Starz cable network. Speaking with AllThingsD’s Kara Swisher, he declined to say much about the state of negotiations between the companies. Asked to confirm the speculation of analysts that it might cost as much as $200 million, he said, “We
haven’t done the deal yet, but that wouldn’t be shocking.” At $200 a million a year, that would amount to a little more than 6 percent of Netflix’s forecast 2011 revenue. The original deal cost $30 million.
Is there any wonder why Hastings is selling his stock faster than he can exercise his options? Starz is just one small content provider. Other content providers will follow suit and charge NFLX more too…that is, of course, if the content providers have not signed exclusive deals with Disney, Amazon.com, Apple, Hulu, etc., etc. for content distribution.
We are still short NFLX.
