Comcast Buying DreamWorks Animation Is A Sneaky $3.8 Billion Middle Finger To Netflix, Amazon And The Idea Of Competition

Make no mistake, this proposed $3.8 billion acquisition of DreamWorks Animation by Comcast is a direct challenge to Disney on their own, family friendly turf, but it's more than that. 

It's more proof -- if you needed more proof -- that content is indeed king. And, it is a major shot fired in the escalating content licensing wars that will completely reshape the media consumption landscape over the coming years. Particularly when it comes to reigning power Netflix and supporting queen Amazon. 

Netflix's available title base has been shrinking. According to QZ.com, "In March of 2014, the US Netflix library contained approximately 6,500 movies and 1,600 television shows. As of yesterday (March 23), Netflix offered its US subscribers 4,330 movies and 1,200 TV shows—decreases of 33% and 26%, respectively."

Netflix lost 32% of it's titles in about two years. Why? Competition from other streaming services, bigger focus on originals and trimming down on some of the obscure titles, says QZ.

"Competition." Say the word out loud around a Comcast broadband executive and they instantly combust, turning into a fine ash that you just can't get out of your clothes. But competition is at the heart of this. Comcast now competes with Disney, and competes with streaming services on their turf by owning major IPs. 

Think about it. Comcast now owns Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon, Madagascar and the rest of the DreamWorks Animation current and future library... in total. There's some real crap films in there, but some of those are serious powerhouses. Do you think Comcast will license out the rights to any of these to be available on Netflix or Amazon Prime for anything less than obscene amounts of fees when they could bolster their own offering? Build up their own service? Push exclusive content as a part of "exclusive" data-cap free packages for Comcast subscribers? 

Don't be stupid. Of course not. 

"Po, you must accept your fate and follow your path to exclusivity."

That was a hypothetical question that you should already know the answer to. Just yesterday Comcast conveniently announced on their corporate blog that they were "moving to a terabyte data plan" in all of their trial markets. For those of you fortunate enough to not have had to deal with data caps on your broadband, they are fees that get added on when you use over said cap. In this case, the old cap was 300 gigs which for cord cutters or high video streaming and Internet usage customers, is an exceptionally small cap. Want to download a digital game through Xbox Live? That's often 10 - 30 gigs. Stream Youtube and HD all day for a toddler? Watch all your TV through Netflix and other streaming services? Welcome to high data usage. A terabyte is a significant increase from 300 gigs, and much less likely a result of Comcast suddenly realizing their customer's best interests (voted worst company in 2014) and much more likely that the flood of cord cutters and streamers will continue, and to win them means to own the content. 

The justifications for these data caps given by Comcast have been repeatedly called out as bullshit for years. AT&T does the same thing in some markets. Have a data cap? Want to stream video? Then use AT&T's streaming service U-verse, which doesn't count -- as much -- towards your data consumption total! Convenient. 

It's an easy way to penalize customers for using non-AT&T services that cut into margins, like for example cutting your cable TV subscription.

When you think about Comcast's play into owning more content with the DreamWorks Animation purchase, they'll have more reason to hook viewers into their licensed library and penalize those who go elsewhere, higher data caps or no, because they own that pipeline of access to the competition and they can take titles away from the competition. They're the card dealer and the player at the same time. It's only competition if Netflix, Amazon and the like also hold the keys to consumers accessing Comcast content, which they obviously don't.

Want to watch Shrek? Only available on TV and Comcast's streaming network. 

It's a glimpse the dystopian media landscape of the future. A Mad Max Fury Road (great damn movie) wasteland where War Boys and various factions are sitting on their own Gastowns and water holes, doling out the gas (content) and water (broadband) just enough to keep the emaciated masses hanging around for more, because they have no choice or don't know any better. 

"I live! I die! I live again! Shrek is miiiiiiiine!"