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Disney (Kinda) Gives A D About FAST Channels

Over a month ago, I wrote this article about how Disney should fully embrace the growing FAST market and launch channels that are untethered to apps or streaming services as well as providing several I'd like to see them create. A lot has changed in a month, and Disney shut down all of their free TV Everywhere-connected apps with the exception of ABC News Now. The ABC, Disney Now, Nat Geo, ESPN, FX, and Freeform apps are dead, and everything that those apps offered to cable consumers who wanted their shows on the go are now locked behind a paywall on Disney+ and Hulu.  The ABC app was interesting because they had several FAST channels, or as they called them, Unlocked Channels, connected to it. Among them: 20/20 ABC News Live General Hospital Spotlight Press Your Luck To Tell The Truth To Catch A Smuggler Wicked Tuna Car Chases True Life Stories The Incredible Dr. Po ABC News Live ESPN 8: The Ocho Cesar Milan Better Human, Better Dog Life Below Zero Lost Treasures Supernanny Days
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Imagine If Disney Gave a D About FAST

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Before I begin, I have to preface this with message: THIS IS NOT REAL NOR IS IT GOING TO HAPPEN.  This is a speculative concept that imagines a scenario where something is possible using what a company has access to. I am not an employee of The Walt Disney Company nor are privy to anything the unit is doing behind closed doors. What I'm presenting here is a work of fiction. The content presented here are the machinations of a guy who thinks entirely too much about stupid crap like this on a regular basis. I just needed to get it out of my system the only way I could - through graphical and written analytical presentations Now, the article. Enjoy: Disney HATES the word "free." I think that's been a part of the company's DNA since it was created because the Disney brothers were betrayed by the husband of their original distributor and didn't want to just give away things anymore. The company has always been resistant of putting their wares on freely-available ou
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What to Do with WBD's Networks?

 If you've followed Thoughtnami over the past 20 years, thank you for your patronage and your support . It's so great to be back writing posts like this after all of these years. It feels more natural and less constrictive than tweets and occasional posts across social media. You also know that when it comes to one particularly Hollywood media company, I have a love-hate relationship with them. And that studio has had many names during the course of those two decades. AOL Time Warner.  Time Warner. WarnerMedia. Warner Bros Discovery. And they've all been called "the most poorly run media company" by me throughout those two decades. Now, granted, I may be a little hyperbolic with that statement. They're really not the most poorly run media company (looking at you both, Paramount Global and Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment), but considering the two years the current management team of David Zaslav (President and CEO), Gunnar Wiedenfels (Chief Financial O
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Should I Wear The Black Hat?

I've always wondered what my villain origin story was.  I have to think it began when I got my first "Where can you find the CNX channel on the cable dial in London?" all those years ago. When I began CNX: Toonami Revolution back in 1998, CNX was always a dream to create a Toonami network. From that dream, I created a webpage, started a community, built an inner circle with like-minded friends, joined a great group of fans who became my online family. I got noticed by Cartoon Network, befriended the creators of the block that inspired me, and ended up brainstorming with others at the channel, especially international locales, about what a Toonami channel could look like. Didn't know they'd actually do it.  Didn't know they'd take my name, something I built for years, either.  I rebuilt myself, created new names, but the damage was done. It was the beginning of a long trip that made me forever have trust issues with everybody. It scarred me for life. It'
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Boomerang: It's (Probably) All Coming Back to You on MAX

I guess the vineyards heard the news that the Boomerang streaming platform is shutting down on September 30 with many of the shows on the site migrating over to MAX, and everybody is being completely rational and acting mature and cordial about this latest news from Warner Bros Discovery. I'm lying, of course. They're panicking, freaking out, and being pessimistic about the fate of everything around them. In other words, it's another day that ends in "Y" to my English-speaking friends.  Look, I completely empathize with those worried about the future of the shows on the Boomerang app. Warner Bros Discovery hasn't exactly been the best steward of animation in recent years.  Granted, they're still putting animated titles on physical home media including high-quality restorations of shows, shorts, and movies, putting more of the library on many streaming platforms including Netflix, Tubi, Hulu, and Freevee (which exclusively houses WB TV's Cartoon Rewind
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The Bear That Wasn't... A Comedy

A long time ago, I first watched an MGM short directed by Chuck Jones, The Bear That Wasn't. The 1967 short, based on a 1946 children's book by director and animator Frank Tashlin, was about a bear who, after awakening from hibernation, finds himself in the middle of a busy city and a building site. The bear is mistaken for a worker by a foreman on the site and protests that he's not a human. The foreman tells him he's just a silly man in a fur coat who needs a shave and demands him to go to work right on the spot, which the bear reluctantly does much to his protests. The bear tries to plead his case only to be repeated the same line over and over again that he's just a silly man in a fur coat who needs a shave. The bear is also told he's not really a bear because he's not in a cage in a zoo with other bears. This causes the bear to just surrender to what people have told him and decides to just accept it.  Months pass, and he finds himself uncomfortable in
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Support Thoughtnami Any Way You Can

I don't do posts like this often, so forgive the brief promotional break. Think of this as a pledge break segment like they do on public television in the States.  (You totally should support your local public media outlets if you can) I'm currently a freelance creator on a very, very fixed income. Haven't really gotten many professional gigs lately (still waiting for payment for a job I did a couple of weeks ago before my keyboard broke on me) and considering I'm also a caregiver, I can't really leave home for lengthy periods of time.   If you like what I do around these parts, various social outlets (I'm mostly on BlueSky and the site formerly branded as Twitter ), and on Quora  (where I answer a lot of questions), you could always support me.  If you want to send me a financial tip, you could send me one via PayPal . Every little bit helps out with groceries and medicine and other expenses that come up. If you want to send me a gift, you could send me one fr
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