Disney reportedly lost 1.7 million paid subscribers in the week after suspending Kimmel
Disney reportedly lost 1.7 million paid subscribers in the week after suspending Kimmel
I hate to be that guy but this whole thing has frustrated me deeply. It shows we’re willing to fight back and do know how, but our selective use of that power is rather superficial.
Yes, I understand this was very important in the realm of speech but it still has an overtone of celebrity culture. Most people can’t be bothered to boycott to end genocide or to protest legislation or support the courts or to advocate for worker rights or healthcare, but to save a celebrity that makes this nightmare easier for them to swallow every night? Sign everyone up!
It feels less about protecting free speech and fighting fascism and more about them protecting their humor drug that makes “the bad place” more palpable.
Americans know how to fight back they’re just unwilling to do it unless their TV personality who gives them feel good juice is on the milk carton. I know that’s harsh but it’s just frustrating watching everyone cry about how helpless they are until their feel good nightly placebo(s) was/are on the line.
Again, I get the importance and the way the target was clear etc. It’s just frustrating to watch people cry they don’t know what to do then step up big time for famous people but not their communities, neighbors or their own family’s wellbeing.
This is a huge win and I don’t mean to detract from that. Please keep boycotting and hopefully this drives it home to more people that this is an effective tactic across the board. I just needed to vent a little.
To show your support for free speech and protest US government's actions all they had to do (in this instance) was to unsubscribe from Disney+.
How do you protest for the ending of the Palestinian or Uyghur genocides? Who do you boycott? What do you unsubscribe from?
I think this is the answer. If I could log into my World.me account and cancel my Israel subscription they'd really be feeling the hurt.
Unfortunately for the world - our taxes don't get distributed that way.
BDS, for one.
There is a well established movement to determine exactly what you're asking for.
I hear you, but cancelling 1/4 of your streaming services with the knowledge that can be reversed easily at any time is hardly the same as protesting or boycotting something tangible or an entire industry. I don't think this has anything to do with celebrity worship, and it has everything to do with how easy the protesting can be.
This protest could be done from home in three minutes, you don't suffer the consequences until the end of the month, and we all know less TV is better for us regardless of speech so there's very little downside.
I agree Americans aren't doing enough. I wish we were doing more.
People also arent directly paying Israel $20 a month or whatever, which can be cancelled at a whim. The most support that the average American sends to Israel is via US tax dollars. Good luck not paying your taxes just to send a message without ending up in prison, not to mention being unable to buy anything through typical means
I think it actually shows we don't know how to fight back.
With Disney all they had to do was unsubscribe (or in some way contact Disney) to show their frustration.
How do I do that with ICE? How do I do that with Republicans (when all of my reps are Democrats).
Disney has a bottom line they worry about, but this administration doesn't care about my opinions or my wallet (look at the direction the economy is going). So even if I could directly tell them I'm not happy with things (and I do in some ways), they don't care.
A coordinated effort to withhold the tax revenue the state expects would probably do it. Unfortunately that'll land whomever participates a prison sentence.
Sadly, most people are selfish and don't give a shit about horrors happening in another country on the other side of the world.
That's why, by the way, when news report on horrors, they state "173 dead people including 2 americans", even though it absolutely does not matter where piece of land the victims were born on.
I canceled 2 accounts. It was strictly about fighting fascism and supporting free speech.
I don't even remember who it was. Falon or Kimmel? I don't watch either.
There are a lot of lethargic people who think "Liking" a post will change the world for the better. Canceling Disney services is one of the lowest effort things we collectively could do as it also provides the side benefit of removing a monthly expense in these overpriced times.
And then gained the majority of them back immediately after unsuspending him I would guess? As consumers, we are far far far too quick to forgive.
It's good to reward good behavior too. If none of them came back then they might as well have just shrugged their shoulders and said "oh well" and left him off air.
From Disney's perspective, the point of unsuspending Kimmel wasn't to gain back all the subscribers they lost.. It was to stop the further hemorrhaging of additional subscribers!
Maybe the situation here is different, but in the video game industry when boycotts happen due to scummy business practices and then get instantly forgiven, those companies in question usually figure out a new way to implement those scummy practices that flies under the radar. Or they just do it again, at a better time.
I can't help but feel Disney will now work out a new way to appease the fascist regime, but without openly annoying supporters like this. Maybe those private "thoughtful conversations" they had with Kimmel contained some directives. Maybe we'll get a more neutered show now. Appeasing the regime is the problem really.
Yeah basically I think the closer to 50% renewal the better. That sends a nice message of " it was worth it to go back on the decision, but we also need to not do more things like this". This is generally the good strategy for forgiveness in between individual humans too. Forgive 50% right off the bat. If you forgive 0% then there's no point in them changing their behavior, if you forgive 100%, there's also no point in them changing their behavior, because they can just do whatever they want and then collect 100% forgiveness afterwards. So you gave around 50% depending on the severity of the wrongdoing, and then incrementally build that back up with continued good behavior.
Let's see first.
If no one forgave, what incentive would they have to change their behavior? The goal should be to force them to reverse poor decisions, not convince them to double down
Disney who?
Don't resubscribe to any of the Disney related streaming services. Find your love in the high seas, mateys!
You know, I am starting to see why people are romanticising pirates. The lackadaisical attitude and freedom that pirates had, given the encroaching techno-fascism at the moment, is starting to become appealing; not that I condone the violence the pirates did.
1.7 million sounds like a big number however what is the total amount of subscribers for Disney?
If Disney has 100 million subscribers and Disney freaks out about losing 1.7% of subscribers. It kinda shows how easy it is to apply economic pressure to companies.
1.7% is still a HUGE drop in that context. This is a sector, at a time, that does not like subscriber losses.
Yes, stuff like this works. It's why they worry about MAGA controversy too, unfortunately.
It is reportedly around 130 million. I suspect the reason why Disney is freaked out about the loss is that it's costs are almost entirely fixed. It takes the same amount of money to produce a movie or a show regardless of how many people end up watching it. Unlike producing physical goods where less customers also means less materials and work needed. So losing subscribers decreases their revenue but unlike other businesses, it does not decrease their expenses, putting their budget in trouble much faster.
The left gets to see headlines like this that seem devastating and they pump their fists in satisfaction.
The right pumps their fist as they see their own set of headlines that describe a totally different narrative, that despite facing unfair backlash, that the "woke mob" has been dealt a blow and has learned that Disney isn't going to ignore the dangerous and violent rhetoric that the late night grifters spew.
Either way, Disney has calculated all of this, and their numbers will be back to normal within six months or higher because of the trending of their brand names. The average, uninvolved median voter and comfortable liberal will snuff a noise of amusement at the whole thing before firing up their Disney+ subscription to catch the latest round of Star Wars slop this fall.
Maybe, but maybe not. Consumers haven't forgiven Target even months after the fact, and their sales are still way down. People are pissed given everything going on now.
Target was already in a really tight spot, their prices are too high and their products too specialized for an economy teetering on free-fall, and they're not exactly offering the broad-appeal staple products like Walmart, which usually have locations literally across the street from Target.
Larger brands rarely budge and if they do, it's not exactly a lasting social impact. I maintain that you can do a lot more as an individual simply by spending less broadly. Companies only cave to public backlash when they're desperate, so we all need to do a lot more to make them desperate. Spend less on luxuries and entertainment, cut back or quit vices, learn to go without the latest games, movies and electronics and keep your money out of credit companies so they stop feeding off us. We built this monster, we need to starve it. (Also, again, the economy is close to collapse, good idea to start stuffing your mattresses.)
There is also alternatives to target.
I cancelled after having the service for several years.
And then they jacked up the prices? Good luck with that shit, bozos.
They gotta leach more money from the people addicted to Disney, to make up for the subscriber loss. Line goes up no matter what.
Keep the boycott going.
Disney caved in to POWER, and then Disney caved in to money.
Their morals are all wrong. People were not even in the equation.
Morales my dear sir? A corporation is a base beast. You can teach it the lessons of carrot and stick, but do not be so fooled as to think it can learn compassion or morality. When left alone in the darkness this little mouse's eyes glow orange and its jowls drip moist with frothy salivation.
Their beloved founder, Walt Disney, was a patriot who respected the First Amendment. Was he not? Where is leadership with principles? Why is greed for a multi-billion dollar merger now the sole driving force of these knee-jerk business decisions? How many other less prominent scenarios like this guiding their leadership decisions?
Yeah, he was. He's dead now and the new management and the principles only worship the Line.
Praise the Line, for it must go up! BLOOD FOR THE LINE GOD.
It's their ONLY measure for success.
Based.
My brother-in-law quit his local tv station job over the censorship. Affiliate network. Proud of him!
I'd like to know where those numbers are coming from, but it is believable.
Wouldn’t be surprised if it was an internal leak. There’s a lot of hands around this data it’s easy for someone to slip.
Probably from Disney, there's no way for anyone else to know.
In some way, a similar thing needs to be done to any entity supporting or bowing to Trump. From countries to colleges to people in the government and so on. The big question is how to do that, how to get people to come together and do that.
This. Money is the ONLY language a corporation understands. If you hit them hard and fast after they kowtow, then the link is undeniable.
Education, empathy, and selfless service. These are lost principles traded in for greed, vanity, and pride. Civility and respect are needed. Seeing Constitutional principles and inalienable rights as greater than money is key.
They lost $6.4 Billion in valuation.
Bend the knee again. I dare ya. I double dog dare ya.
That number is encouraging.
Good. May it continue to hurt.
The sad part is that these numbers are made up and Disney probably won't really be affected by this.
Unless a majority of D+ unsubscribes, stay unsubscribed, this will be little more than a blip on their financials.
Don't go back.
I could give a fuck less about corpo profits. I care only to the point where they can be used to manipulate the corpos.
Now that they brought him back, there's going to be another wave of revenue loss. A political pincer movement lol.
This is why staying out of politics is usually in a business’s best interests. There is no winning move where pissing off one side or the other is a good thing for $$$
The right was pissed at Disney years ago though (I can’t even remember what BS for); they’ve weathered that storm before.
Disney opposed the "don't say gay bill" at the behest of employees and fans.
I think this all started when Disney DARED to do the unthinkable and put a light saber in the hands of a Black actor for about 2mins. On top of that Disney RUINED EVERY CHILDHOOD EVER by making a female the main protagonist of the SW sequels. That was a bridge too far for the cheeto dust covered sad bois who were living with their parents at age 42, and the rest is history.
I'm doing my part!
A decent start
A tyrant threatened a private business and a person was fired from that pressure. Over their comments about politicians making things too political.
I don't give a shit about Kimmel or Disney or some corporation's bottom line. These things are not important. They are ancillary details to the context of a dictator shutting down free speech.
This stuff is more like celebrity gossip... It's gossip related to a thing that matters.
I really want to cancel Disney, but my wife won't let me because her currently bed bound mum likes to watch it.
If you can't, get other people to cancel in your place.
You could boycott Sinclair and Nexstar instead since they were the networks who pressured ABC to drop him in the first place.
I'm in the UK, I dont know what either of those are
Cause fuck’em, that’s why!
That's a fuckload of lost solid revenue.
And there’s why they “unfired” him.
Losing roughly a quarter of a billion per year in revenue makes them rethink things.
—— 9.99 per month for Disney basic 15.99 for Disney plus.
Just for easy math average those two so $12.99 per month.
$12.99 x 1,700,000 x 12 months = $264,996,000
And how many of those resubscribed, since Disney obviously learned their lessen.
Fuck Disney. If you didn't know who they were, you do now. Publicly traded companies care about one thing:
Not this guy. I'm ok with one less subscription.
I was kind of shocked how many people on here resubbed a day later and told others to do the same because they got the message.