Totalbiscuit, Husky, and Pewdiepie are all going to be owned by Disney.

[Not G. Ivingname]

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/disney-buy-youtube-video-producer-maker-studios-23047351

All these guys, and more are part of the Polaris "youtube network." Polaris is the gaming arm of Studio Maker network, which includes a lot of other channels (such as Epic Rap Battles of History).

Studio Maker will be bought by Disney for at least $500 MILLION dollars. They will also get $450 million dollars bonus if they meet some "performance targets" (which shouldn't be that hard, since all of Studio Maker's channels get 5.5 BILLION views a month).

So, yeah, loads of people who makes tons of money by swearing a lot are going to be owned by the house of mouse.

I would be worried, if it wasn't for Disney's hands off approach to Marvel. They should understand that Pewdiepie would lose all his subscribers overnight if he couldn't say anything stronger than "darn" and had to play Disney Infinite all day.

Thoughts?

 

[Xeorm]

I think you're a little more optimistic than I am about Disney not wanting to censor some of their new youtube channels. Never underestimate just how much power and how little restraint suits have in making big stupid changes.

 

[Roxas1359]

Well look at it this way, now they have Disney lawyers protecting them when it comes to copyright, and if any entity in all of existence can protect copyright, it's the company responsible for the current way copyright laws are.

Anyway, are they saying that they have to go and play only certain games, because Disney is actually pretty hands off with certain things. Really this also means that Disney now owns Blip.TV, Nostalgia Critic, and others...Disney's influence scares me. 0_0

Really though I'm curious on how this will play out because you do know that Time Warner Cable used to own them, and then Time Warner was getting bought by Comcast. So in the end I look at it this way, either Comcast was gonna have control over the biggest YouTube personalities out there, or the Walt Disney Company, and in my opinion between the two Disney at least tries to keep a positive image of themselves.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Well look at it this way, now they have Disney lawyers protecting them when it comes to copyright, and if any entity in all of existance can protect copyright, it's the company responsible for the current way copyright laws are.

Anyway, are they saying that they have to go and play only certain games, because Disney is actually pretty hands off with certain things. Really this also means that Disney now owns Blip.TV, Nostalgia Critic, and others...Disney's influence scares me. 0_0

I didn't know Studio Maker owned Blip. >_>

So many people who have had so much trouble with copyright, now owned by the bloated monster of copyright madness...

Well, you know what they say about not dying and living too long...

 

[Roxas1359]

I didn't know Studio Maker owned Blip. >_>

So many people who have had so much trouble with copyright, now owned by the bloated monster of copyright madness...

Well, you know what they say about not dying and living too long...

Yep, Maker bought Blip I believe back in 2010 or so. It's why the Nostalgia Critic uploads a lot to there, and later to YouTube. The thing about this though is that now that Disney owns Maker Studios, if they were to file copyright on videos they own it would be counter-intuitive and wouldn't make them money. Not to mention that if verified partners were to get a strike then it also gives a strike to the network, and then Disney wouldn't make money either. Now we have this scenario in which Disney, the biggest defenders of IPs they own in all of history, can possibly provide legal lawyer support to Maker Studios...I just got even more scared.

Not to mention that Disney is no stranger to lawsuits or copyright, since they are responsible for the current way copyright laws are right now...>.>

 

[LiFi]

Disney is a very suspicious company, in my eyes. They're buying up all this IP, all of this stuff, and most likely are just going to sit on it and make money from it just being there. Like Star Wars 1313, That had potential to make a ton of cheddar for the Mouse House, yet they cancelled it because, if memory serves, "It wasn't in our creative direction" or some roundabout way of saying "We've got better things to do than make that". So I'm slightly worried Disney could end up doing that with a lot more than LucasArts.

Also Illuminati.

 

[DasDestroyer]

Pretty much the only person on Polaris/Studio Maker that I watch is TB, and he recently tweeted:

Yup, Disney now owns Maker so also owns Polaris. No idea what this means for us, but I'll make the content I want to make or go elsewhere.

So I'm not too worried.

 

[Lilani]

I think you're a little more optimistic than I am about Disney not wanting to censor some of their new youtube channels. Never underestimate just how much power and how little restraint suits have in making big stupid changes.

From what I've observed, people who own "new media" based companies like Maker Studios understand that the creative freedom of their content creators is their bread and butter a lot more than "old media" companies like Disney do. I think if Maker felt Disney was going to severely change their content, they would have balked at the deal. I mean $500 million is a lot, but if it means Disney is going to make changes which make it completely worthless, then it'll just come back to bite them right back (unless the higher-ups just took their share of the money and split, though their cut would only be a fraction of that half billion). Remember that Disney owned Miramax when they made No Country for Old Men, and Marvel's movies have only been thriving since they were bought by Disney.

In Eisner's last years he had a major problem with branching out creatively and letting studios do their own thing, that's why the late 90s and early 00s came with all those direct-to-video sequels farmed out to Disney's second-class animation studios. But they got him out of there, and now Bob Iger has been slowly but surely giving the studios their freedom back, and has proved more than once the Mouse is capable of owning a studio without making everything that comes out of it wear the big round ears.

 

[bluepotatosack]

Disney also owned Miramax when they put out Clerks. I wouldn't worry about them enforcing censorship on their subsidiaries.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

So...can we just give the keys of the world to Disney now and call it a day? Because they seriously own everything now it seems. Star Wars. The internet. Marvel. Er...Disney, I guess? So yeah, all they need to do is buy up the manga/anime market and they own everything I care about. And they're not exactly doing a bad job, although Star Wars remains to be seen.

 

[Orks da best]

my question is why? When it came to Star Wars or Marvel it made some sense, but this seems little more than taking the extra profits form channels, so little more than greed I think. Unless Disney plans to take control of youtube? Or start its own video website like youtube?

Still its a curious choice, not entirely without merit but still... very odd.

 

[Story]

I don't know how to feel about this. There is a lot of really great things that come from this acquisition. The least of which that it shows major corporations are seeing such media as serious advertizing venues. Plus, Disney is actually really hands off when it comes to their bought properties, I'm sure Nostalgia Critic, TotalBiscuit, and others will be fine.

At the same time, Disney these days...just scares me. They own so many popular properties, they are starting to look like a monopoly to me. *puts on tin foil hat*

CAPTCHA: Live in the now.
That's easy for you to say.

 

[Charli]

http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic/42715-disney-afternoon

COINCIDENCE? I THINK NOT.

/tinfoil hat

But really I wish them all well and hopefully this doesn't affect any of their content.

 

[FPLOON]

So... Apparently, my YT partnership's CEO is Mickey, then?
O_0
I just imagined Joe Jonas as PewDiePie TotalBiscuit for a second...

OT: If any of those people start making Disney Infinity-only content and/or dedicates an entire channel to just playing Disney Infinity (a la Minecraft), then you should worry a little... Otherwise, it's not like Disney's a monopoly "oligopoly" or something like that... *shifty eyes*

In other news, aliens from another planet ask people of Earth to take them to their leader... and everyone points to the iconic Mickey Mouse himself...

 

[DudeistBelieve]

I think you're a little more optimistic than I am about Disney not wanting to censor some of their new youtube channels. Never underestimate just how much power and how little restraint suits have in making big stupid changes.

Didn't they own New Line Cinema or whatever company it was that released Clerks?

 

[Saetha]

So...can we just give the keys of the world to Disney now and call it a day? Because they seriously own everything now it seems. Star Wars. The internet. Marvel. Er...Disney, I guess? So yeah, all they need to do is buy up the manga/anime market and they own everything I care about. And they're not exactly doing a bad job, although Star Wars remains to be seen.

They basically already HAVE moved into manga, atleast. Disney owns Hyperion, a major YA publishing house. which I believe has put out a few tie-in manga's with some of their more popular novels. And they bought it out before Marvel, or Star Wars, or this.

It's only a matter of time before they begin phase three, and the Mouse Ears hats all activate their mind-control functions...

In all seriousness though, I have absolutely no reaction to this. The good thing about New Media is that it came about completely independently, and if given no other option, can probably go straight back to operating independently. The only personalities I care about that would be effected by this in anyway are Cryoatic and JonTron, and they can probably just make content without a major backer if they had to, so... Does it really matter if Disney screws up or not? New Media thrives on creative independence - if Disney won't give that to them, they'll just go somewhere else.

But if Disney CAN handle this... well, I guess it was pretty smart of them to move into the New Media scene early. Who knows where this stuff could go? Video games used to be a pretty niche market, and now it's a major industry.

 

[JacksonDemolition]

Disney owns Hyperion.

NOT IF HANDSOME JACK HAS ANYTHING TO SAY ABOUT THAT.

 

[Robert Marrs]

People worry to much. Disney owns so many things. It only cares about keeping up the disney family friendly standard when there name is directly plastered on it. Not a company thats owned by another company that they own.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

So Totalbiscuit is a Disney Princess?

We need artwork of that NOW!

 

[WouldYouKindly]

I'm sure another network would be glad to pick them up if they find working under Disney to be too much of a hassle.