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Movies Media Sony Television

Disney Strikes Deal For Sony To Take Over Its DVD, Blu-ray Disc Business (variety.com) 82

Posted by BeauHD from the end-of-an-era dept.
Disney is outsourcing its DVD and Blu-ray disc business to Sony Pictures Entertainment. Variety reports: As part of the deal, Sony will market, sell and distribute all Disney's new releases and catalog titles on physical media to consumers through retailers and distributors in the U.S. and Canada. Disney will continue to manage its own digital media, like premium video-on-demand. It's unclear if this will result in layoffs at Disney. However, the studio is expected to conduct an internal assessment across all business functions that support physical entertainment amid the transition to Sony, according to sources familiar with the agreement.

According to Disney, the licensing model allows the studio to continue to offer films and TV shows through physical retailers and to respond to consumer demand more efficiently. The company said the shift is consistent with strategies it's implemented companywide, as well as transitions in other markets.
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Disney Strikes Deal For Sony To Take Over Its DVD, Blu-ray Disc Business More

Disney Strikes Deal For Sony To Take Over Its DVD, Blu-ray Disc Business

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  • Disney seemed to be almost unable to produce ANY DVD/Blu-ray discs for anything, so I can only assume this will mean more physical media for sale of a lot of content that was otherwise only available on Disney+

    They have to let that stuff out into the world to breathe, if they want to attract new Disney+ subscribers.

    • Re:Seems like a great idea (Score:5, Interesting)

      by sanf780 ( 4055211 ) on Wednesday February 21, 2024 @02:19AM (#64256370)
      I assume the plan is to kill discs. Brick and mortar retail stores are giving less and less shelve space to discs already, reducing exposure to the public. Streaming services do seem like better value than discs in many people's minds in spite of audio/video quality drop (I will refrain to comment on content quality). IMHO, Disney is letting Sony handle the exit from market process.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by DrXym ( 126579 )

        If the plan is to kill discs then Disney is doing an stellar job by pumping out effluent that barely justifies the cost in time to watch once on streaming let alone an actual purchase.

      • > Brick and mortar retail stores are giving less and less shelve space to discs already, reducing exposure to the public

        Well such stores are in dire straits as it is as the public barely go to them anymore, certainly in the UK.

        Swathes of stores and chains are closed over here as we all order stuff from Amazon, who also are one of the main ways to get optical media. I go to HMV once in a while and splurge on 5 or 6 titles but mainly I get stuff, all stuff, from amazon. Failing that perhaps Argos, then e

        • Re:Seems like a great idea (Score:4, Interesting)

          by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Wednesday February 21, 2024 @06:35AM (#64256688)

          It took me 15 mins to drive to the car park, pay for parking and get to the shop. Then I had 15 mins max insode the shop, which didnt have the toothpaste, so I had to make do with something else, then had to stand in a queue because they dont have self service tills! Then I had 15 mins to get back to the car and back to work, a whole 45 min lunch break spent looking for toothpaste that the store didnt have!

          That's what malls are for. Oodles of parking spots, multiple stores to choose from. Or at least they were until the cult of laziness and obesity came over America. With the exception of grocery shopping and maybe a few select items, you could get everything you wanted at a mall. Suncoast Video used to be the place to get whatever you wanted as far as movies were concerned. If they didn't have it they could get it for you.

          But I saw the writing on the wall long ago. The incompetents at the top had, and have, no clue how to run the stores. Selection kept decreasing and was replaced by their own named products which were ugly and inferior to quality. It's why Macy's keeps closing stores and is on the verge of being bought out and going private. They're too stupid to see the issues.

          As for Amazon, they're no better because the companies selling offer limited variety and selection, not to mention the quality of products has declined as well. Have you picked up a pair of Levis recently? Whatever happened to jeans that could be worn for years. Now you're lucky if they last a year.

          And this doesn't get into the issue of not knowing what you're going to get. You have to wait to order the item, have to wait for delivery, and if it's not right, have to wait to drop it off for return, then start the process all over again. Unlike at a mall where you could touch the product and try it on right away (in the case of clothes). If they fit you pay and you're done. Now most people are content to wait because it means they don't have to get off their fat ass and move about.

          • Re:Seems like a great idea (Score:4, Interesting)

            by DarkOx ( 621550 ) on Wednesday February 21, 2024 @08:13AM (#64256854) Journal

            Retailing is primarily about inventory turns. Everything else you do is essentially in service of that. The everythings being customer service, store layout, deciding what lines you will carry, distribution, etc.

            What people that have never been on the 'business end' of *big* retail often forget is very rarely is it about arbitrage (buy low sell high); it is usually buy -> mark up slightly -> sell -> repeat. I say often forget because most educated people actually do know this, if sit them down and ask them how a Home Depot makes money. We are not used to thinking like that in our personal lives though so we often 'knee jerk' and say stuff like "gee they should do xyz...that would be nice" when the economics of it really don't make sense.

            There are business that enjoyed enormous success by doing things like making distribution really 'efficent' see: Walmart. However even Walmart always understood its about turns. Its why they became notorious for insisting on Walmart versions of products, it we don't want 14oz jars we want 10 or 30 - either I want the shopper back in the store each week or I want to sell them a second loaf of bread to go with that obscenely large jelly jar.

            This is precisely why Malls are failing in the modern era. Historically having a wide selection brought in foot traffic. It was a long tail thing boutiques could sell stuff with inflated markup because they offered an opportunity to 'have exactly what you were looking for right now' something the mercantiles and supermarkets could not do; then Amazon took a lot of friction out of catalog shopping and added a bunch of speed in all while thinning the margin down to more mercantile/super market like levels. Most people are not happy with what they can get at Walmart or they are going to buy it on line. The Mall with its massive over head of finished space (rent), high cost of distribution can't roll box truck up that boutique on the 2nd floor, is a dinosoar. Its dead it aint never coming back.

            Same thing with disks. You and I might like them but you can 'turn' licenses for streams faster than you can 51/4" plastic things, speed wins.

            • Re:Seems like a great idea (Score:4, Informative)

              by Ed Tice ( 3732157 ) on Wednesday February 21, 2024 @10:39AM (#64257262)
              You make many valid points, but I don't think this is why malls are failing. Malls are a terrible experience for most people. If you are shopping as recreation, they are great. If your goal is to get the thing you need and get back home, they are atrocious. The design of malls necessitates that you will park a significant distance away. Maybe some people are lazy and don't like walking but others might be in quite good shape but just don't want to spend ten minutes in the weather to buy a tube of toothpaste. Then you enter the mall via one of the "anchor" retailers so you have to do another ten to fifteen minutes of walking inside. The rents at malls were historically high. So you end up paying much more for the item. The bad experience of malls is what lead to chains like Walmart and Target being able to take large portions of the market share. And then, of course, ordering from Amazon made the experience even more pleasant.
              • The actual economic problem of American-style shopping malls is the fundamental conflict between car transport and foot traffic.

                Retail thrives on foot traffic, but you can't have foot traffic and car traffic at the same time/place. It has to be car-free because walking or eating is not relaxing with traffic zooming by, and having parking lots for every store makes everything too far apart and too stressful to be walkable, and makes the density of storefronts too sparse to be sustainable. Cars destroy any so

            • Kinda.

              Turnover matters when you have tight cash flows. Home Depot won't be getting weekly buyers of large home appliance or lighting (a substantial portion of their revenue), and you won't be attracting customers for that unless you have something to offer against the hundreds of other purveyors, whether it is pricing or other services.

              At no point have I ever thought of going to the mall to get grape jelly.

              Malls were more "event" destinations, to hangout, get some foodstuff you wouldn't go out of your way f

          • That's what malls are for. Oodles of parking spots, multiple stores to choose from.

            Actually that's what good town planning is for. The fact you think malls are required is quite striking. Good town planning ensures you don't have to drive long distances, or pay for parking. If you can't leave your office building and walk to a shop that has toothpaste within 5 minutes your city is broken. If you can't leave your home and walk to a shop which has toothpaste in 15min, or cycle in 5minutes, or drive in 5 minutes, your city is broken. If the shop is so busy that there's a 15min queue to get o

        • The grocer is one of the better places to find DVDs around here, ironically. It is funny that I can often order a Blu ray or 4k disc for less than 'buying' it on streaming.

      • Brick and mortar retail stores are giving less and less shelve space to discs already, reducing exposure to the public.

        Brick and mortar stores sell what is of interest to buyers. If your local one is offering a smaller and smaller DVD / Bluray collection it's because no one wants to buy them. Our local one hasn't downsized at all in the past decade.

      • For what it's worth, Disney+ seems to have excellent quality audio. As far as I can tell they've had everything in the catalog professionally remixed to full surround-sound, even stuff that predated the technology. I haven't personally checked for resolutions above 1080p due to lack of hardware, but up to 1080p at least the picture quality also seems impeccable across the board.

        Don't get me wrong, I think it's an accurate assessment that this signals Disney's intent to exit the physical media game entirely,

      • Brick and mortar retail stores are giving less and less shelve space to discs already, reducing exposure to the public. Streaming services do seem like better value than discs in many people's minds in spite of audio/video quality drop.

        I run a brick and mortar retail shop with a small (~1500) selection of DVD & BRs. They don't sell. Not well enough to cover the rent on the space they occupy. But some people do come in specifically looking for them -so it is drawing in customers, which gives them some value to me... If there was a more productive use for the floor space, I would not sell them at all.

    • The Disney Vault was intentional, the only way you got new things was by being on the Disney Movie Club, and they stopped supporting iTunes about 3 years ago. You're better off just buying the new release in the store, otherwise DMC will just keep sending you Winnie the Pooh and Toy Story over and over.

      This is probably for the best, Disney has always sucked about producing it's own things, when it should just license others so they don't have to take the risk.

      Case in point, Disney has always muddled about w

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by GuB-42 ( 2483988 )

        The sad part about games is that Disney inherited LucasArts, a legendary game studio, just to promptly kill it. Granted, it wasn't at its best, but it was still active. They didn't even try to do something with it.

  • First, it's "its" not "it's".

    How ironic Disney is outsourcing its physical media to Sony, a company knowing for yoinking digital content from underneath subscribers making content no longer available. No, that will be kept by Disney, so whether through "The Disney Vault" or "Hey we're tired of paying residuals" they can just disappear content.

    Sony, on the other hand, has to "support" physical media. I'm not sure what kind of "support" a BR or DVD needs other than a shelf, an occasional dusting, and carefu

    • > soon-to-be-obsolete physical media player

      How soon...

      That has been said like for 15 or more years and I'm still waiting. Thinking of that, I was sure that record players bit the dust only to find they didnt. Cassette
      players too, but again they never did, they just became shoddy crap for a bit then started getting better.

      FM radio was supposed to have been turned off and radio in general was supposed to have been replaced by streaming. Yet I find that FM is alive and well, DAB is fine although patch an

  • Doesn't matter either way (Score:3)

    by iAmWaySmarterThanYou ( 10095012 ) on Wednesday February 21, 2024 @05:22AM (#64256628)

    Anyone who wants their older stuff already had it.

    No one wants their newer stuff.

    • Anyone who wants their older stuff already had it.

      No one wants their newer stuff.

      Yeah. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol3 only made just shy of a billion dollars at the boxoffice. Clearly no one wants their new stuff.

      You are not as smart as you claim.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Anyone who wants their older stuff already had it.

        No one wants their newer stuff.

        Yeah. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol3 only made just shy of a billion dollars at the boxoffice. Clearly no one wants their new stuff.

        You are not as smart as you claim.

        Oh, it made one billion? Disney has lost one-hundred and sixty billion in value in the last 5 years. Not even Disney magic can justify your response. I’m sure they wish it could though.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      Anyone who wants their older stuff already had it.

      No one wants their newer stuff.

      If anything Disney films would be the ones most often bought on DVD because when you want to replay a 5 yr old's favourite Disney film for the umpteenth time you don't want to have to bother with an unreliable streaming service.

      However Disney's portfolio has gone well beyond kids movies, MCU, Star Wars and 20th Century Fox are owned by Disney.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hawk ( 1151 )

      yeah, but my vcr died 15 years ago, and the surface is flaking off the tape, anyway.

  • Best Buy no longer carries physical media. Target and WalMart have scaled back. The physical disc is rapidly dying. Disney would only do this if it wasn't making them money.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      Best Buy no longer carries physical media. Target and WalMart have scaled back. The physical disc is rapidly dying. Disney would only do this if it wasn't making them money.

      Dying yes, dead, no. You're still talking about a business doing a couple billion dollars every year. And the smaller studios have been doing booming business the past few years.

      It's becoming a niche, yes. But even so, Walmart knows their audience doesn't rapidly adapt to streaming (or can't) so they've got investments in the area.

      And ye

    • Best Buy no longer carries physical media. Target and WalMart have scaled back.

      Uh huh. Speaking of “dead” formats, they’re scaling back alright. To ironically make more shelf space forvinyl albums.

      And they’re “scaling back” about as much as Amazon is when it comes to selling physical media online.

      Physical media isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Streaming companies keep screwing more and more with every generations favorite movies suddenly leaving online catalogs, and we’ll actually see demand grow for it.

    • The physical disc is rapidly dying.

      I think the likely explanation for Walmart and Target not selling many discs is that people are buying the DVD's online. I haven't bought a DVD from a physical store in more than ten years, but I buy a steady supply from Amazon.

  • Digital (Score:5, Interesting)

    by XanC ( 644172 ) on Wednesday February 21, 2024 @08:32AM (#64256910)

    How has "digital" come to mean the opposite of "physical"? Are DVDs not digital?

    • How has "digital" come to mean the opposite of "physical"? Are DVDs not digital?

      Dude you're raising this point *NOW*? Where were you when Apple started releasing digital music 2 decades ago. That is when you should have raised this talking point. Now, you're just shouting at clouds, angry at the words that people have been using commonly in this way for 20 years now.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by XanC ( 644172 )

        The music Apple started releasing then was indeed digital, and they didn't have any physical releases. So it wasn't incorrect for them to say they were now releasing digital music. That doesn't mean physical CDs aren't also digital.

    • How has "digital" come to mean the opposite of "physical"? Are DVDs not digital?

      I know we’ve re-defined a lot of words and concepts in the last couple of years, but you’re seriously making it sound like you just got done demagnetizing your reel-to-reel deck while waiting for the VHS rewinder to finish.

    • The data is stored in a digital format; however, the disc itself is still analog. The 'pits' are not perfect and can be damaged. The spacing, while uniform at human levels, is not entirely perfect, and in fact, at atomic levels, appear almost randomly placed.

      But yeah, the language used is sloppy and lazy.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by XanC ( 644172 )

        The wire that connects the online service to my house is similarly analog, and the signal is imperfect at atomic levels.

  • Can I play blue ray disks on my old computer stored in basement, It has DVD player, or I it is something different?
    • Blu-ray uses a different type of laser. Blu-ray players can generally read DVDs, but DVD players cannot read Blu-Ray discs.
  • Sony is still trying to push Blu-ray. They killed their competitor HD-DVD, but they can't kill streaming...yet.

  • I know, I don't "own" the digital copies of the movies, but I'm not really concerned. The stacks of CDs, DVDs and Blu Rays that I had were given away for free because nobody wants them. I'm using Apple for movies and movies that were purchased in HD and a UHD 4K upgrade was released were automatically upgrade. Movies that I had on DVD and I wanted on BluRay were another purchase. I'm fine with not "owning" movies on physical media. The 700+ movies I have on Apple are just a database entry, of course, but I

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