Viacom CBS complete where's Movies anywhere - Blu-ray Forum

QUINTISON · 09-16-2019, 11:29 PM

The merger of CBS and Viacom is finalized the new company will be called Viacom CBS so now that's out of the way how much longer do we have to wait for the Movies anywhere and paramount to get things done?!

If paramount joins ma hopefully it is a domino that gets lionsgate and mgm to also join remember the rest of the world ultraviolet movies have until flixter shuts down then ultraviolet is gone and we can finally get things rolling with movies Anywhere!

brooks101189 · 09-17-2019, 12:07 AM

Up in the air.

If they do decide to get added, they'll probably get added on the release week of a big Paramount movie on digital. Say for instance if Crawl came out next week and they decide to debut on the service that day.

steve_dave · 09-17-2019, 01:30 AM

Paramount needs more money to join MA, its not as simple as signing on a dotted line.

The studios who currently participate help fund MA together. This communal money pot keeps the system going. Those willing to join also have to be approved by the consortium.

Paramount wouldn’t have a problem with approval but the money could be. They are struggling and despite some hits, its mostly misses.

FYI: Lionsgate reportedly refuses to join MA.

IndyMLVC · 09-17-2019, 01:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by steve_dave

Paramount needs more money to join MA, its not as simple as signing on a dotted line.

The studios who currently participate help fund MA together. This communal money pot keeps the system going. Those willing to join also have to be approved by the consortium.

Paramount wouldn’t have a problem with approval but the money could be. They are struggling and despite some hits, its mostly misses.

FYI: Lionsgate reportedly refuses to join MA.

LG doesn't refuse. They, like everyone else that hasn't joined, can't afford to. It's very, very, very expensive. Blame MA and Disney for making it so difficult.

QUINTISON · 09-17-2019, 07:04 AM

The Viacom CBS deal was a $30B deal so if paramount pictures is struggling they should be in a better position with CBS and I know whoever's part of the Movies anywhere has to pony up for the system to work but I thought it was a nominal fee for the real money should be from the library on Movies anywhere being a film that you can get on Movies anywhere SHOULD increase the sales of said movies and their cash could be from the library backend sales if it's just too much for a studio in participation upkeep just take a cut of the movies on Movies anywhere so the studio's can pay less!

From what I've read the upkeep is less than having to pay for being part of a walled garden but I'm not sure why Disney would be putting up barriers to entry when it comes to content is king and the more you have for Movies anywhere the more money you make and frankly there are plenty of people who have no idea it even exists and I really thought it would be advertising everywhere and everyone would know about it but while the system is we can link almost all of your accounts (lacking PlayStation store) and play some of your movies Anywhere but still lack important content and oh yeah sorry we don't have any thing at all to do with tv shows!

It'd sound worlds better to be able to say that you can link up all your library including tv shows and all your accounts that you can use Movies anywhere as a place to gather all the digital content on a single app and of course spread to all of your accounts that you have connected to it!

This is frustrating waiting for the complete picture to be viewable and if Disney can buy everything why would you need to hike the fees there's supposed to be a board of directors keeping Disney hands off so they have key chest and no control! From what I know.

Scarab · 10-13-2019, 12:23 AM

CBS/Paramount/Viacom were all owned by the same people before the merger. All the costs were on paper and ultimately save them money. They are owned by a very greedy family. Wasn't always that way but the father/husband died and the mother+sons nearly bankrupted them. They also own a chain of movie theaters called Showcase Cinemas. During this issue they sold off a lot of their theaters and split CBS and Viacom into two, the purpose being they were selling some of the stock in the companies and figured they can could get more total money selling shares separately (shares themselves would be worth less but selling twice as many should equal more was their thinking). It didn't work out very well but after the recession they started rebounding. They ultimately only owned 80% of each company after they sold shares off, which is still more than enough to maintain complete control. They have been trying to merge the two companies again for years as separately they bleed more money with redundant staff positions (basically they wanted to cut jobs to increase profits).

All that being said, one company or two, the owners are greedy and wont join unless they get a much greater amount of money than any other studio which has currently signed on. I heard they are also asking for more votes in controlling the direction of MA. They figure MA needs them more than they need MA, but they have a limited library compared to the other major studios, that is until MA offers TV series. If/when that happens Viacom and CBS both own are very important share of the content. That might be why MA is trying to get paramount to join before expanding their offering.

Either way I don't see this happening anytime soon. Their best option is to make Paramount the odd man out. Right now they are out with Liosngate, but if they joined there would be more pressure to follow suit. UV tries this with Disney but Disney is big enough to resist. The other thing I am hoping for is they add in several of the smaller studios. There are admittedly dozens of these but a choice few each have over a hundred movies I would like to see added, and again the more studios using MA the more pressure there is on the studios who haven't joined.

Then again, aside from Disney, all of the other major studios who have joined haven't included their entire libraries. I have dozens of movies from each studio which aren't eligible. And that doesn't include the entire pre-1986 MGM library owned by WB.

tjritter79 · 10-13-2019, 07:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by QUINTISON

The merger of CBS and Viacom is finalized the new company will be called Viacom CBS so now that's out of the way how much longer do we have to wait for the Movies anywhere and paramount to get things done?!

If paramount joins ma hopefully it is a domino that gets lionsgate and mgm to also join remember the rest of the world ultraviolet movies have until flixter shuts down then ultraviolet is gone and we can finally get things rolling with movies Anywhere!

First-It's NOT final. They are still awaiting FCC approval....which should come before the end of the year, unless of course the Fed decides to impose conditions....like they did with Disney/Fox, T-Mobile/Sprint, Sinclair/Tribune, etc.

Second, V/CBS is NOT DONE! Shari Redstone has said in several interviews she's looking to expand the companies portfolio of content. Not limited to purchase of Discovery Networks, STARZ and merging it with Showtime, Lionsgate and merging it with Paramount, acquiring Sony Pictures, and of course leaving the door open for continued involvement with MGM & Mill Creek Entertainment.

Third, take notice. Movies Anywhere IS internally evolving. Recently accepting the Scooby-Doo catalog of "straight to DVD" cartoon movies that, yes, are basically expanded versions of the TV show. Not convincing enough? How about September when they ALSO welcomed the "Holy trinity" of Charlie Brown TV specials.....albeit listed in "their" roster of movies. However their "acceptance" shows not only a potential commercial shift in their view of TV shows, but is ALSO necessary if Disney "eventually" wants to ALSO release the "original" shows debuting on Disney+ to commercial outlets like iTunes, Vudu, and Google Play in addition to their "Movies Anywhere" service. Doesn't make sense they would self-restrict their OWN content on their OWN digital locker service....so these "baby steps" they are taking now I think is more of a PR move so as not to be accused of "favoritism" when it comes to their own D+ content being released publicly at some time.

As far as embracing other movie studios, Movies Anywhere is fully aware that the movie-buying public is not limited to just a handful of studios. However for the MOST part the ones at issue are ALSO the ones who have massive financial debt, are up for negotiation of sale and are more valuable for their archived content as opposed to what they could produce in the future. Last week, Lionsgate showed a willingness to split-off Starz from its organization....this was more of a "hurry things up" message to V/CBS but as I said I don't think V/CBS is in any hurry to make any more "buys" until Fed approval and the ink is dry on the V/CBS merger.

InfinTravs · 01-07-2020, 05:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scarab

The other thing I am hoping for is they add in several of the smaller studios.

I would love to see a lot of the smaller studios join MA and it would help. However, why don't MA lower or waive the fees for them? And are the fees publicly known?

echopulse · 01-08-2020, 01:25 AM

Disney already does limit their own content on MoviesAnywhere. They won't allow Disney Channel Original movies on the locker service. I thought there were about 50 Disney Channel Original Movies, but if you include the ones they called Disney Channel Premiere Films, there are about 150. They didn't even allow them on DMA when it was called "Disney Movies Anywhere" I don't really see Movies Anywhere evolving more than incrementally.

09-16-2019, 11:29 PM	#1
QUINTISON Active Member Member since:Oct 2015	Viacom CBS complete where's Movies anywhere The merger of CBS and Viacom is finalized the new company will be called Viacom CBS so now that's out of the way how much longer do we have to wait for the Movies anywhere and paramount to get things done?! If paramount joins ma hopefully it is a domino that gets lionsgate and mgm to also join remember the rest of the world ultraviolet movies have until flixter shuts down then ultraviolet is gone and we can finally get things rolling with movies Anywhere!

09-17-2019, 07:04 AM	#5
QUINTISON Active Member Member since:Oct 2015	The Viacom CBS deal was a $30B deal so if paramount pictures is struggling they should be in a better position with CBS and I know whoever's part of the Movies anywhere has to pony up for the system to work but I thought it was a nominal fee for the real money should be from the library on Movies anywhere being a film that you can get on Movies anywhere SHOULD increase the sales of said movies and their cash could be from the library backend sales if it's just too much for a studio in participation upkeep just take a cut of the movies on Movies anywhere so the studio's can pay less! From what I've read the upkeep is less than having to pay for being part of a walled garden but I'm not sure why Disney would be putting up barriers to entry when it comes to content is king and the more you have for Movies anywhere the more money you make and frankly there are plenty of people who have no idea it even exists and I really thought it would be advertising everywhere and everyone would know about it but while the system is we can link almost all of your accounts (lacking PlayStation store) and play some of your movies Anywhere but still lack important content and oh yeah sorry we don't have any thing at all to do with tv shows! It'd sound worlds better to be able to say that you can link up all your library including tv shows and all your accounts that you can use Movies anywhere as a place to gather all the digital content on a single app and of course spread to all of your accounts that you have connected to it! This is frustrating waiting for the complete picture to be viewable and if Disney can buy everything why would you need to hike the fees there's supposed to be a board of directors keeping Disney hands off so they have key chest and no control! From what I know. Last edited by QUINTISON; 09-17-2019 at 07:10 AM.

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09-17-2019, 12:07 AM	#2
brooks101189 Blu-ray Ninja Member since:Jan 2010 Location:My Home Trading Score:102	Up in the air. If they do decide to get added, they'll probably get added on the release week of a big Paramount movie on digital. Say for instance if Crawl came out next week and they decide to debut on the service that day.

09-17-2019, 01:30 AM	#3
steve_dave Blu-ray Count Member since:Nov 2008 Trading Score:20	Paramount needs more money to join MA, its not as simple as signing on a dotted line. The studios who currently participate help fund MA together. This communal money pot keeps the system going. Those willing to join also have to be approved by the consortium. Paramount wouldn’t have a problem with approval but the money could be. They are struggling and despite some hits, its mostly misses. FYI: Lionsgate reportedly refuses to join MA.

10-13-2019, 12:23 AM	#6
Scarab Member Member since:Sep 2016 Location:USA 4K collection:82 Blu-ray collection:1376 DVD collection:448 MA collection:3237 Digital collection:3479 Trading Score:1	CBS/Paramount/Viacom were all owned by the same people before the merger. All the costs were on paper and ultimately save them money. They are owned by a very greedy family. Wasn't always that way but the father/husband died and the mother+sons nearly bankrupted them. They also own a chain of movie theaters called Showcase Cinemas. During this issue they sold off a lot of their theaters and split CBS and Viacom into two, the purpose being they were selling some of the stock in the companies and figured they can could get more total money selling shares separately (shares themselves would be worth less but selling twice as many should equal more was their thinking). It didn't work out very well but after the recession they started rebounding. They ultimately only owned 80% of each company after they sold shares off, which is still more than enough to maintain complete control. They have been trying to merge the two companies again for years as separately they bleed more money with redundant staff positions (basically they wanted to cut jobs to increase profits). All that being said, one company or two, the owners are greedy and wont join unless they get a much greater amount of money than any other studio which has currently signed on. I heard they are also asking for more votes in controlling the direction of MA. They figure MA needs them more than they need MA, but they have a limited library compared to the other major studios, that is until MA offers TV series. If/when that happens Viacom and CBS both own are very important share of the content. That might be why MA is trying to get paramount to join before expanding their offering. Either way I don't see this happening anytime soon. Their best option is to make Paramount the odd man out. Right now they are out with Liosngate, but if they joined there would be more pressure to follow suit. UV tries this with Disney but Disney is big enough to resist. The other thing I am hoping for is they add in several of the smaller studios. There are admittedly dozens of these but a choice few each have over a hundred movies I would like to see added, and again the more studios using MA the more pressure there is on the studios who haven't joined. Then again, aside from Disney, all of the other major studios who have joined haven't included their entire libraries. I have dozens of movies from each studio which aren't eligible. And that doesn't include the entire pre-1986 MGM library owned by WB.

01-08-2020, 01:25 AM	#9
echopulse Senior Member Top contributor Member since:Mar 2013 MA collection:8 Trading Score:3	Disney already does limit their own content on MoviesAnywhere. They won't allow Disney Channel Original movies on the locker service. I thought there were about 50 Disney Channel Original Movies, but if you include the ones they called Disney Channel Premiere Films, there are about 150. They didn't even allow them on DMA when it was called "Disney Movies Anywhere" I don't really see Movies Anywhere evolving more than incrementally.

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