Why Can’t Streamers Stop Titles From Bouncing Back and Forth Between Services?
Customers are continually frustrated by content shifting between streamers, but there doesn’t appear to be an easy solution.
Remember that moment in every “Indiana Jones” movie where Indy boards a plane to some far-flung locale and the scene shifts to a map showing where on the globe he’s headed next? Well, the movies themselves are now making a similar journey. ScreenRant noticed that the “Indiana Jones” movies have shifted off of one of the streaming platforms they were most associated with, potentially leaving fans of Harrison Ford’s whip-wielding archeologist frustrated and confused. As the proliferation of streaming services continues to change the entertainment landscape, titles jumping from one service to another is an increasingly annoying problem for viewers. So, I’m going to dive into why these types of content displacements are seemingly more frequent these days, and why streaming services can’t (or won’t) stop them from happening.
Key Details:
- All Indy films except “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” are no longer on Disney+.
- Licensing agreements allow streamers to show content they don’t own, but only for a limited time.
- The money involved in owning big-name franchises ensures the problem of content fracturing won’t be solved any time soon.
As noted by ScreenRant, the first four “Indiana Jones” movies have been officially pulled from Disney+, where they had resided for months. The movies are now only available to stream with a subscription to Paramount+.
Why did this happen? Doesn’t Disney own the Indiana Jones franchise because it bought Lucasfilm? It’s a bit complicated, but the short version is that, yes, Disney did acquiree the rights to the Indiana Jones intellectual property (IP) when it bought Lucasfilm in 2012. That gave it the right to produce and distribute new movies from the franchise, which is why “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” remains on Disney+ even after the other movies have been removed. “Dial of Destiny” is a Disney production through and through, so the company retains the streaming distribution rights for that one.
Paramount, however, was the original studio responsible for distributing the first four Indy films, and it still owns those distribution rights. That’s why it was able to pull the original movies back to Paramount+ as of Oct. 1, presumably at the end of a licensing agreement. It is not clear whether Paramount opted to keep the movies for itself or Disney declined to pay for the right to stream them moving forward, but regardless of the reason, it does leave fans of Dr. Jones with a Disney+ subscription wanting.
Why Do Streamers Move Content Around So Much?
Customers are demonstrably frustrated with the amount of moving that TV shows and movies seem to do in this age of streaming. A 2023 survey indicated that viewers not having access to the content they want on a given streamer accounted for two of the top three most-given reasons for canceling their subscription.
If the problem seems to be getting worse, that’s because, in my opinion, it is. In the early days of streaming, platforms employed what was called a walled garden strategy. Streamers would never share their content with the competition as exclusivity was one of the most powerful draws to get people to sign up. But as Wall Street began to look askance at streamers spending huge amounts of money on original content yet showing huge losses on quarterly balance sheets, media companies began to reconsider their philosophies to bring in additional revenue, including the long-held licensing taboo.
Licensing deals between streaming services really took off in 2023, with agreements that saw AMC shows head to Max, HBO and Disney shows to stream on Netflix, as well as numerous other partnerships. They’re not going away, either; in July, AMC and Netflix worked out a pact to allow the world’s largest streamer to license 15 popular AMC titles, and Netflix executives have publicly stated that the streamer is on the hunt for more such deals as well.
In my view, the underlying problem is that big-name IP owns such a large corner of the public consciousness that there is simply too much financial incentive for companies not to share it. While it would be much easier for users if either everything was available on one streamer and it remained there in perpetuity or all titles were available everywhere, those do not appear to be strategies that the major media conglomerates have much faith in anymore.
Exclusive shows continue to be a big draw for the streamers that own them, and can even help customers tell one streaming service apart from another. So having the next hit streaming series will always be a boon for a platform, but after a show is over, there’s no guarantee how long it will remain exclusively on its original service, or be pulled from streaming entirely.
Additionally, platforms obviously are paid to license titles like “Indiana Jones” to their competition, so that is something that excites investors. We have also seen that when titles arrive on new platforms — especially when that new platform is Netflix — they see significantly more engagement than they did on their original home. The attention that the titles garner on their temporary platforms theoretically helps their “home streamer” when they eventually revert back, as the Indiana Jones films are with Paramount+.
That’s why the problem of content fragmentation isn’t going away soon. There’s simply too much money and exposure on the table for streamers to keep all of their content on one unified platform. Until media companies can figure out a better solution, don’t expect the problem of shows and movies abruptly appearing and disappearing from your favorite streamer to be solved.
Paramount Plus
Paramount+ is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 40,000+ TV show episodes from BET, CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr. and more. Get free access with a Walmart+ subscription.
Paramount+ includes “1883,” “Tulsa King,” “Star Trek: Discovery,” “SpongeBob SquarePants,” and “PAW Patrol.” Subscribers can watch the NFL, college football, The Masters, college basketball, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa, Serie A, and NWSL. The service also offers the option to watch your live CBS affiliate. The upgraded ad-free package includes premium movies and shows from Showtime.