Who would have ever thought a little cartoon puppy would be destroying Disney+?
It turns out according to a report from Bloomberg that Bluey is garnering 29% of ALL viewership on Disney+. I’d like to give a huge thanks to @NowItsKnown on 𝕏 for sharing this with me.
Bluey and Chucky watch Dad, Pat and Lucky celebrate their rugby team scoring!
You might ask how a show that is pulling 29% of a streaming platform’s total viewership can possibly be a bad thing. You might ask how something so successful could be damaging the streaming service in which it is hosted. Those are both great questions I’d like to answer.
Imagine that you are a company hell-bent on delivering a particular type of product. Imagine that as part of your efforts to have a robust portfolio of content, you pick up a dinky little show out of the BBC that you can add to your collection. It’s nice, but just padder.
Bluey and Bingo are super excited when Dad brings out Unicorse!
Now imagine you find out that the padder isn’t in line with what you constantly promote. Whereas your products are edgy, culturally appropriate, “modern” and leftist, this little dinky thing you’ve paid for is sappy, heartfelt, conservative, and universal in its traditional values. So, of course, you censor some of it. Not all the episodes are allowed and you edit the ones that are.
But regardless, this product that is absolutely in direct contradiction to all your other programming becomes the biggest thing on your streaming service.
Rusty and Mackenzie are operating the spaceship while Jack sets course for Mars!
Now imagine it not only becomes the biggest thing on your streaming service, but imagine that it is a whopping 29% of everything that happens on Disney+. And on top of that, you don’t own it. You don’t have any additional rights to it. You can’t merchandise it. You can’t put it in your parks (they tried and failed).
But maybe worst of all… you detest what it is and the folks who work for you don’t want to make that kind of content. And you’re stuck knowing that the thing you detest is the most popular thing you barely have access to for your streaming service.
Dad and Bingo run around and have fun with Turtleboy!
That’s Disney+ right now. Go get ’em, Bluey.
NEXT: Bluey Keeps Getting Censored on Disney+ Despite Other Programs Not
What’s with the weird conservative viewpoint about a kids show? Disgusting