Thoughtnami™

Okay, that was a bit of an overreaction.  I'm tired.  I don't think I can do this anymore. I'm tired. I'm done. I feel broken. I can't do this anymore.  The internet isn't the place I first stepped into back when I first got online in 1996. This isn't the same internet I used to log on a dial-up modem when I got my first home computer in 1997. This isn't the same internet I started my first really successful webpage on GeoCities back in 1998. This isn't the same internet I found a great community of friends back in 1999.  This isn't the same internet I found the love of my life over a decade ago. This isn't the same internet I found many friends through Twitter back in 2008. That internet is gone.  GeoCities died a long time ago. My old webpage is history. That old community has devolved into a group of whiners.  The love of my life died almost three years ago.  The site formerly known as Twitter is now just a white supremacist playground. wh

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

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

 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

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'

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