Streaming

The Mouse unveils some internet bells and whistles in Britain.

... Be prepared to part with £9.99 a month, as DisneyLife has just launched in the UK.

In this age of streaming services, one of the biggest movie and TV companies in the world has decided it doesn’t want to miss out, and so DisneyLife has been created.

Disney has rolled out its direct-to-consumer streaming service in the United Kingdom, offering more than 2,000 TV episodes and 5,000 music tracks, ahead of a wider worldwide push.

This includes animation classics like The Jungle Book, live-action features like the Pirates of the Caribbean series, and Pixar’s own back catalogue. ...

Our fine entertainment conglomerates find new and exciting ways to squeeze money from content via the internet. New Media, baby! And lots of it!

The big companies tell unions and guilds that this internet delivery thing continues to be dodgy, and who knows if there's any money in it?

But that is less and less true all the time. There was a lively discussion at tonight's General Membership meeting about animated shows are increasingly delivered online, and how Disney, DreamWorks and the rest of the gang get a wage break for New Media productions. Weekly paychecks are holding up (kind of) because the animation job market is tight, but that can always change in two or three heartbeats.

The internet is going to be fought about by the conglomerates and unions during the next contract negotiation. Count on it.