This almost sounds as though Disney wasn’t being too smart for their own good at this point since if the rumors are true there are bound to be a lot of people that will be ditching their Disney+ subscriptions now that The Mandalorian has hit the end of its first season. The good news for Disney+ and the fans is that the second season is on the way and is planned to release sometime next fall. The bad news as Mike Jones of ScreenRant talks about is this means that Disney is out however much those subscriptions cost until people decide to come back. You might wonder why they would even worry given that Disney is a huge corporation that makes more in a year than many businesses will make in a decade, but the bottom line is that Disney didn’t get this big by losing money. It’s kind of amusing really since a lot of people thought Disney+ was going to step into the ring and be a contender for the streaming wars, and it’s not too late really, they could make a comeback and produce something that might entice people to come back and keep their subscriptions, but at this point it’s a longer shot than it was back in November when The Mandalorian first released.
As of now people might watch the movies, they might watch the documentaries, and they might keep Disney+ around for their kids and whatnot. Shona Gosh of Business Insider has more on this subject. But it might also be that Disney had a better deal going by pairing with Netflix and allowing the streaming giant to show their material for a hefty sum than firing up their own network just to watch people drop like flies once the favorite show is all done with for the season. Or maybe it would have been a better idea to push the Kenobi story so that it could release when the Mandalorian was over and done with. There are a lot of things that Disney could have done differently in this case but hindsight being what it is even a massive corporation like the Mouse House isn’t perfect, but really with as many people looking out for the corporation’s interests one would think that they could have seen this coming. It’s a wonder as to whether there’s a contingency in place for this or if they were riding high with all their cards in play and no backup to speak of since that might have shown a lack of confidence in their chosen path. Like it or not, a contingency can collect dust if it’s not needed, but once that fateful moment comes it’s usually a good idea to have one in place even if a manual is needed on how to operate it after so long.
It’s not so much an ‘I told you so’ moment as it is a time to reflect and wonder just what Disney is going to do now since one show shouldn’t be allowed to make or break the entire network. Paul Tassi of Forbes has something to say on this matter. Obviously though The Mandalorian was the flagship show of the whole thing at this time and given that it’s drifted off into the sunset for the time being there’s not a lot that can really interest people as much since Star Wars and the many stories it provides has been trending in a big way for the last year or two. Even adding The Last Jedi and Endgame to the roster didn’t help much as Netflix has had to steadily give up every Disney-owned property it was using to Disney+ as was expected. At this point none of it is really helping Disney since that one show is the reason that a lot of people signed up in the first place. Now that the subscriptions are dropping off it’s going to be interesting to see just what the impact really is and what Disney is going to do about it since trying to keep interest and merchandising up throughout the next year shouldn’t be too hard, but keeping it going without any huge hints about what’s coming in season 2 might be a little more difficult since, as we’ve seen, merchandising can really screw up the expectations for just about anything and can tip people off in a big way if things are released too soon. Of course if one releases them too late then they run the risk of losing a great deal of money. Oh it’s a vicious game to play, and I’m feeling lucky I don’t have stake in that part of it at least.
Whether the mass exodus of subscribers will prove to be that problematic or not is hard to say since Disney has taken hits in the past and kept going. But if the streaming network is going to survive then it needs to follow the example laid out by other networks and start doing more original stuff.
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