Large media companies need to make the switch to focusing on distributing their products in digital forms due to most media being consumed online and on phones rather than using the physical disk or going to the cinema. This means that larger companies focus on putting their products on services like iTunes and Netflix or in the case of Disney, creating their own streaming service to distribute their products.
The problem with focusing on digital formats instead of physical formats is that there is a increase in piracy as it easier to pirate digital products and share them meaning that the larger companies would loose money on the digital release. In 2012 there was an estimated over 110 million illegal movie and television downloads which would have had a large impact on the profits made in the DVD and digital release. But the main profits are made during the films run in cinemas which is still effected by piracy as there are many low quality recordings of the film. This makes a negative on the ticket sales.
The benefit that the larger companies, the Big 6, have is that they can focus on offering a cinematic experience to draw people in to the cinema. This would lessen the effect of piracy as the quality of pirated movies is lesser and the higher quality of cinema screens, which would make people want to watch the movies in cinemas. This effect is amplified further by 3D and iMax screenings, 3D movies are quite exclusive to cinemas as 3D TV's are not common meaning that seeing movies in 3D's would be exclusive to the cinemas experience which would draw people into seeing the film in cinemas and the ticket is often more expensive if its in 3D. The other type of movie screening is a iMax screening which has a very high quality screen and the film would have had to be filmed partially or fully on iMax cameras, the high quality of the footage and screen would draw people to see it in cinema as that quality is not achievable anywhere else.
Disney is trying to grow its business to go against streaming services like Netflix, this is due to the fact that Disney is making little money when they sell the rights to stream it to Netflix. This means that Disney is working towards creating its own streaming service which would have all the Disney films and their owned companies content, this would draw in large audiences. Disney has also taken their content of Netflix and is pulling their Disney Netflix collaborations like DareDevil and Defenders. Disney's acquisition of Fox means that Disney has a 66% hold in Hulu which is a rival streaming service to Netflix. This allows for Disney to put some of their content on Hulu until they get their own streaming service. Fox also gives Disney the rights for the a lot of Marvel characters which would increase the amount of movies Disney can make for their profitable Marvel series of movies.
