Mouse-opoly

Last week, the biggest news about the internet and inter-connectivity was the FCC's vote to repeal the Obama-era Net Neutrality regulations.  But that's been covered and covered and covered.  Don't get me wrong, I think that this party-line vote is a big blow against free speech in general and open access to information more particularly.  Furthermore, Ajit Pai is the puppet leader of a captured agency and should be relieved of his post.  Beyond that, I don't have anything original to say about it.

Instead, I'll jump to what I feel is the second biggest piece of Internet news: Disney Corp buying the creative assets of 20th Century Fox for $52M.  I know that at first glance, this does not look like a connectivity issue, but it is.  On a large scale.  An international scale.  Read on.

The Last Content

As The Last Jedi slices its way through box office records (though maybe not through that of its predecessor), the Disney content purchase hits a peculiar chord.  After all, they have resurrected a franchise that was sitting in a big bucket of do-or-die.  With the Marvel Cinematic Universe, they are also hitting it out of the park... and with Pixar... and with their own animated features.  They are very good at assembling the right people with the right ideas to make captivating content.

And with the Fox purchase, they are not only adding more content, but have the potential to bring some of the content that Marvel sold off back into the fold.  X-Men and Deadpool and Fantastic Four are all Marvel comic properties, have been tied to each other and the Avengers in a ways that only comic book writers can do.  Now, Disney has the opportunity to really make a cinematic version of the Marvel Universe, not a version of the universe that has been hampered by licencing rights.  So what could go wrong?

Well, Let Me Tell You

The issue is very similar to the Net Neutrality issue, only at the other end of the pipe.  Net Neutrality is about who controls who sees what content on the screen, whether that is a mobile screen, computer screen or TV screen.  The Disney-Fox deal is about what content is created in the first place.  It does not matter how much your ISP restricts different services if there is only one place to get content.

On top of that, Disney has announced plans to make their own streaming service.  Great, in and of itself, but this merger means that they now have a 60% stake in Hulu as well.  They already had a stake, but a much smaller one.  Now they have an incentive to really drive Hulu, a service that may be a perpetual also-ran behind Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, but one that has an existing market all set to be exploited.

Will they merge the two projects, Hulu and their own system?  I'm guessing not.  The smart financial move is to offer both and double dip.  Maybe give premium access to both, something like HBO and Cinemax.  More importantly, they are the controlling partner in Hulu, so Disney will end up having a say in how the content from the other members is handled on that site.  In essence, giving them more power over the content seen on the 'net.

Eat or Be Eaten

For those of us that watch, listen to, read or otherwise consume content (ingest?), this means that we will only have access to what they choose to show us.  At least for 'professionally created' content.  Services like YouTube offer a more 'post it and see what happens' approach leaving a space for the more fringe auteur, but that is merely trading Disney for Google.  Trading being force fed for being preyed upon.

I know that the congressional democrats are making noise about investigating this deal (and yelling about Net Neutrality).  I hope that they get the chance.  I hope that some rules are put in place that make room for interesting stories and not simply what feeds the bottom line.

But in the current Corporate First world, I'm not sure any of that is going to happen.