Disney is among a number of companies who run streaming services that have formed a new lobbying group to promote and protect their interests to politicians and government entities – the Streaming Innovation Alliance.
What’s Happening:
- The Walt Disney Company is one of a number of companies signed on to be part of a new trade group, The Streaming Innovation Alliance, who are working together in a unified lobbying front..
- This marks the first time competing streaming providers have worked together, in this case, promoting their interests to politicians and other government entities.
- The Streaming Innovation Alliance is the united voice of the streaming community, working with the Motion Picture Association, to tell streaming’s story to state and federal policymakers. The Alliance seeks to drive forward a new era of creativity, opportunity, value, and choice in home and mobile entertainment by advocating for smart policies that will support innovative streaming services and the viewers who love and depend on them.
- Disney joins the alliance alongside Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount, and other corporations who, at launch, will represent the members of the Streaming Innovation Alliance:
- These members will advocate for federal and state policies that will “build on the strong, competitive, and pro-consumer market for streaming video” according to the group’s website.
- Notably absent from the alliance – Apple, Amazon, Google/YouTube, and Roku.
- As part of its launch, the Alliance today released a new poll showing that registered voters overwhelmingly favor streaming innovation and are wary of proposals to regulate the market. Seven out of ten voters polled viewed streaming services favorably, with approval even higher among younger voters and in communities of color. While even larger numbers of voters expressed concern about the risks presented by online social media platforms, those fears do not apply to video streaming services and voters are more than twice as likely to trust streaming services with their data as social media networks. By a 2 to 1 margin or more, voters worry new regulations could require streaming services to collect more data or deter them from offering sensitive programming. And two-thirds fear new rules will threaten diverse and independent services the most.
- More information about the poll and its findings can be found here.
What They’re Saying:
- Charles Rivkin, chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association: “Streaming provides great value, vast programming choices, and unprecedented options for consumers. The MPA looks forward to working with the SIA and its members to ensure federal and state policy propels this incredible innovation forward – and doesn’t undermine the value and diversity consumers are enjoying today.”
- Mignon Clyburn, a Democrat who served as acting chair of the Federal Communications Commission: “Streaming services have opened up a new era of progress for program diversity that is bringing relevant stories and options to historically underserved communities at a record pace while opening doors for production jobs to people of color that have been shut for decades. Any policy that drags down streaming would turn back the clock on this vital progress as well.”
- Fred Upton, a Republican who is a 36-year veteran of the U.S. House of Representatives: “The rise of innovative, new video streaming services is an American success story we should celebrate and encourage, not smother with obsolete and ill-fitting rules and regulations designed for completely different technology, products and business models.”
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