Disney+ enters its cancel period, plus Netflix spends $18 billion

Relating to the most recent and biggest on streaming, we’re fairly passionate right here at Pocket-lint. From the best movies to TV shows we can’t stop obsessing over, there may be loads of leisure to like within the streaming period. Nevertheless, it may be powerful to remain updated together with your favourite media, particularly with rising pricesand a constantly-shifting constellation of apps and companies to maintain monitor of.

Enter “The Streaming Scene.”

This brand-new weekly column goals to present you a single place to learn extra about not solely the most recent and biggest content material on streaming, but additionally hold you updated on the most recent reductions and offers that can assist you stream for much less. That is the primary version, however stay up for this column each Thursday, and as a part of our newly launched streaming newsletter on Fridays.

So with out additional ado, let’s discuss streaming!

Disney+ axes all long-form animation

You possibly can blame the success of Moana 2 for this one

Disney+

Earlier this week The Hollywood Reporter reported that that Disney has scrapped all plans for a Tiana, a Disney+ animated sequence, which was set to observe the titular character after the occasions of 2009’s The Princess and the Frog. And sadly, this cancelation is a part of a broader technique shift by Walt Disney Animation away from animated long-form content material created solely for Disney+.

Although I am personally unhappy to see the Tiana challenge scrapped as I am an enormous fan of Princess and the Frog (particularly as a hand-drawn animation fanatic), this transfer away from content material created particularly for Disney+ does make sense, particularly within the wake of Moana 2, which was initially conceived as a Disney+ sequence however was transformed right into a theatrically-released film that went on to gross over a billion {dollars} worldwide. Hopefully, one thing comparable occurs with Tiana, as I would like to see what this challenge might have been, both as a theatrically-released movie, a sequence of shorts, or one thing else.

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Netflix is spending 18 billion on content material this yr

And so they stated they’re able to spend extra

freestocks / Pocket-lint

Throughout this week’s Morgan Stanley Tech, Media & Telecom Convention, Netflix CFO Spencer Neumann made the surprising revelation that the streamer was anticipating to price range an eye-watering $18 billion in 2025 for brand new content material, including that Netflix was really planning to spend extra sooner or later and this quantity was “not wherever close to a ceiling.”

In case you have been questioning, this $18 billion content material price range for this yr is up round 11% from the $16.2 billion spent on content material in 2024 per Variety and comes because the streamer is dealing with elevated criticism for its dialogue-heavy movies and cheap-looking reveals. Maybe, with extra money to spend in 2025 Netflix may cancel one or two fewer reveals this yr. Then once more, they could simply spend the additional cash on the NFL as a substitute.

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The Traitors wraps up its greatest season but

A successful actuality TV sequence

Peacock

The Traitors (US)

Launch Date

January 12, 2023

Showrunner

Stephen Lambert

Writers

Lee Grant, Christine Rose

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I am not the most important fan of actuality TV. Nevertheless, even I can admit when producers discover a successful components, and I’ve been completely loving this newest season of The Traitors on Peacock. Broadly talking, this competitors sequence takes former actuality recreation present contestants from the likes of Survivor, Massive Brother and The Problem and mixes them with a lot of Bravo-lebirites (members of the casts of Actual Housewives, Under Deck, Vanderpump Guidelines, and so on.) and challenges them not solely to take part in bodily challenges so as to add to a prize pot, but additionally an overarching psychological recreation the place they have to work out who amongst them are “traitors,” gamers that secretly get rid of others throughout “homicide” rituals to allow them to declare the prize for themselves.

Although the present’s first season made for terribly watchable tv, the second season faltered a bit as some unlucky new components have been added to the sport that altered the tempo of play. Nevertheless, season three has gone again to fundamentals, and with an especially sturdy solid that features Survivor mainstay Boston Rob, Massive Brother alums Danielle Reyes and Britney Haynes, Vanderpump Guidelines villain Tom Sandoval, and even Britney Spears’ ex-husband Sam Asghari, this season has been must-watch TV for me. The ultimate episode of the season drops tonight, and if you have not checked in with this present but, do your self a favor, and boot up the Peacock app, keep off the Web (you undoubtedly don’t need this season’s twists spoiled for you) and prepare to expertise probably the most compulsively watchable actuality TV in years.

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