Oh it's crazy how much stuff Disney can pull off Netflix, I don't know if they will, because it's in their interest to have some stuff accessible over more than one place, but they own ABC (Lost, Castle, Firefly, etc), ESPN, Marvel, LucasArts, now Fox and their assets, not to mention they distribute on behalf of many publishers (Dreamworks for example), they would probably clear more than half of Netflix's content if they pulled everything.

Almost seems like Netflix knew what they were doing when they started funding a bunch of original content. I remember when people thought they were being silly.

"The goal is to become HBO faster than HBO can become us." - 2013, Ted Sarandos, Chief Content Officer, Netflix

https://gizmodo.com/5980103/netflix-the-goal-is-to-become-hb...

Edit: He just got the company wrong.

Kind of like how Google made Android free to head off Microsoft, not realizing that Apple would be their mobile competition.

Google did make Android free to head off Microsoft, but it was already very clear Apple was the primary competition. They were trying to take Microsoft’s place in the new Duopoly.

From my understanding Android's launch was delayed because they didn't know how amazing the first iPhone was before its release. That seems to me they were taking it seriously as they were competing with Blackberry at the time if I am correct.

The big 3 were BlackBerry, Windows Mobile & Symbian (Nokia)

Android was built a lot like a BlackBerry/Window Mobile competitor in its early stages. Nobody knew Apple was making a phone, there were heavy rumors of course, but people weren't expecting the impact it would have.

Google obviously had to know something about it, as they provided maps apis for the first iPhone. But Apple probably kept as much secret as they could.

But none of them were really prepared for iOS's leap in touchscreen UIs. Android was the fastest to adopt, took about 2-3 years still though. BlackBerry & Windows Mobile waited to late for a reboot and Symbian just died silently.

> Android was the fastest to adopt, took about 2-3 years still though

Is that true though? The first iPhone released in June 2007, the first Android phone (already with proper touch interfaces) came out a year leater, in September 2008.

Yes that is correct, the G1 came out already a year later. But it was still very clearly inferior to the iPhone, the UI was slow, things like scrolling lists was laggy and unresponsive, and no multi-touch gestures like pinch-to-zoom for maps/photos/webbrowser. IMHO Android really started to catch up around the time Nexus S and then Galaxy Nexus came out.

Ah Symbian! I fondly remember my E62, the first mobile device I had with a real OS.

Exactly. Imagine where Netflix would be without it's original content at this point.

Initially, I thought it was just a kind of frustration. For the cost to acquire rights to shows, you could just create your own original content that you own outright, and they did just that.

But now I see that even if the cost of acquiring other series were dirt cheap, the negotiating posture of companies offering the content to Netflix could change at any moment.

But didn't Netflix make the worst move possible?

They developed a heap of MARVEL original content, that Netflix funded, which now Disney is able to pull from them.

I would hope that Netflix negotiated a licensing agreement that prevented Disney from just pulling their rights to the shows they funded.

Current reports are that Netflix's contract rights to the Marvel original shows is set to expire in 2019, just in time for Disney's still unnamed service to launch. (…and possibly one of the reasons it isn't launching until 2019.)

Disney also gets controlling interest in Hulu through this deal. All around bad news for Netflix.

Just as an FYI the Dreamworks distribution deal wasn't renewed in 2016 so they're 'on their own' as it were. I believe the two companies are still friendly but don't directly have the distribution deal in place any longer.

They will starting next year. They're building their own streaming service competitor

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/08/disney-will-pull-its-movies-...

I'm pretty sure Firefly is Fox.

Isnt lucasarts the game studio

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_The_Clone_Wars_(200... is on netflix right now. I think it was made by lucas arts.

No, that was made by Lucasfilm Animation, a division of Lucasfilm. LucasArts is the name of the video game developer and publisher.

Just got excited .. nope, not on my Netflix (UK).

You're completely right, I got arts and film mixed up

They will.

How is it that this is so much less anti-competitive than bundling an OS with a web browser?

Really makes that seem like a simpler time when the concern of the day was that your OS came with an integrated browser.

You make it sound like having a single proprietary browser as the standard for browsing the web is a minor concern. Can you imagine if nowadays anybody who's not using IE/Edge was a 2nd class citizen on the web, not able to access most content? Remember the days of flash? For one thing it would've hurt massively the development of non-MS smartphones.

Nowadays Chrome seems to be the new IE but at least they're a bit more open overall. I have absolutely no doubt that MS would've turn the web into their proprietary playground if given the chance.

> Nowadays Chrome seems to be the new IE but at least they're a bit more open overall.

eeeeeh

"Google Chrome is required to run the new Google Earth. Please try this link in Chrome. Learn more."

"Launching the new Allo Web, only available in Chrome."

"Launching Google Inbox Beta, only available in Chrome."

Granted, Allo and Inbox and the new YouTube design are now available in Firefox, but with artificial performance limitations. Also, even versions of Firefox that support U2F are unable to log into Google with it, because Google sniffs the User Agent.

Additionally, half of Google’s mobile websites are unusable, or haven’t been updated since before the 2013 redesign, on Firefox mobile.

"Best Viewed in Internet Explorer" is back in full swing.

Let's not forget when Google forced Mobile IE to switch to the WAP site for Google Maps even though maps.google.co.uk worked perfectly, then blocked Microsoft's YouTube app and refused to help create one that worked properly just to punish Windows Phone users for picking the wrong platform.

well Microsoft makes Android handset makers pay enormous sums of money for years to license some "software patents" they hold. Not very classy move either.

And when Google a few weeks ago decided to ban all Amazon Kindle’s from accessing their websites, by banning any browser with that User Agent string.

Can only use YouTubeTV on Chrome as well.

Because Microsoft also strong-armed PC manufacturers into not adding Netscape to the computers they sold, for the sole recognized purpose of protecting the Win32 API barrier of entry into the OS business.

Because Microsoft, for all their bad acting, didn't have a hand up the backside of enough senators to use as sockpuppets.

Disney does. They write our IP laws.

The year is 2928. Machines have taken over. Disney lobby-bots are still arguing, "1000 years should definitely still be considered a 'limited time' under the Constitution."

In exchange for 100 years+ of copyright protection we should have FRAND licensing terms. Right now, the public gets nothing.

Most of the FX Networks-owned content has been gone from Netflix for a while; it's been on Hulu or Prime Video.

Sadly Hulu is only available in the U.S., although I find that I can rent/buy from google a lot of content that isn't available on Netflix.

At one point you start wondering why you pay for Netflix.

I just feel like supporting the company that gave us an alternative to media riddled with commercial breaks and having to deal with TV providers.

This is exactly why Netflix is banking on original content going forward.

They have a lot of great original content. In particular they're the leader in stand up comedy.

Quite a bit of FX content (including IASIP) left Netflix this month due to expiring contracts. Convenient timing for the Disney deal.

Seems like a next step would be just buying Netflix with threats of pulling?

Maybe Netflix can survive on its own OC, which is growing each time I load it up.

Isn't a lot of that top tier stuff based on Marvel characters owned by Disney?

That is why Netflix bought Millarworld earlier this year.

l.