Dear Patriots,
QUOTE: Consumers have been shedding streaming services to save money amid soaring inflation but Disney is losing U.K. consumers at a faster rate than Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video, according to a new report.
Streaming service customers in the United Kingdom canceled about 1.5 million subscriptions in the first three months of 2022 — up by around 500,000 from the previous quarter — with more than a third doing so to save money, according to a report by the data analytics company Kantar.
Moreover, inflation has been surging in the U.K., hitting a 30-year high of 7 percent last month.
“Households are starting to seriously prioritize where and how their disposable income is spent,” the Kantar report said. “The proportion of consumers planning to cancel [subscription video on demand] services and stating the primary reason as ‘wanting to save money’ has risen to its highest ever level at 38%, up from 29% in Q4 ’21.”
But among the streaming services getting hit with cancelations, Disney has been hit the hardest, as viewers are dropping the company’s streaming service at a much faster rate than Netflix and Amazon.
Meanwhile, shares of Disney (DIS) have dropped nearly 15 percent so far in 2022, making Disney one of the worst performers in the Dow, according to a report by CNN Business.The news comes after the Disney brand has taken a huge hit among American parents, with a majority of independents saying they “no longer trust” the company’s programming for their children in the wake of Disney pursing an aggressive LGBTQIA2S+ agenda.
QUOTE: CNN is shutting down its CNN+ streaming service less than a month after its launch, a spectacular flameout for a venture that had attracted stars like Chris Wallace and Alison Roman and was seen as a way to attract a new generation of news consumers.
It had started March 29, shortly before CNN was taken over by new corporate parents. The new leaders of Warner Bros. Discovery quickly let it be known they considered CNN+ an ill-conceived idea.
The subscription-based service will be shut down at the end of April. Executives said some CNN+ programming and employees will be absorbed into the television network and website but there will be layoffs. The head of CNN+, Andrew Morse, is leaving the company.
QUOTE: In a resounding sign of no confidence, hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman has dumped the 3.1 million shares of Netflix that his fund purchased just three months ago, saying he has lost confidence in the ability to predict the streamer’s future prospects.
Ackman’s sell-off comes after Netflix shares tanked close to 40 percent on Wednesday following disastrous first-quarter results that included a loss of 200,000 subscribers and a predicted loss of 2 million more in the months ahead.”While Netflix’s business is fundamentally simple to understand, in light of recent events, we have lost confidence in our ability to predict the company’s future prospects with a sufficient degree of certainty,” he wrote in a letter to investors obtained by multiple news outlets.
Gov. DeSantis Is Right To Attack Disney. Republicans Everywhere Should Follow His Lead
QUOTE: Woke corporations that wage war on families and target children should expect to be targeted in turn by GOP lawmakers.
News broke Wednesday the Florida Senate had passed a bill to dismantle Walt Disney World’s half-century-old “independent special district” status, an arrangement whereby Disney has been allowed, since 1968, essentially to govern itself. Gov. Ron DeSantis says Disney’s self-governing status should be subject to review, to ensure that it is still “appropriately serving the public interest.”
Good. Disney is reaping its just reward for inserting itself into the political debate about Florida’s parental rights bill, which Disney lost in spectacular fashion. Republican governors and lawmakers across the country should be taking notes.
This is how you deal with big corporations that try to throw around their weight and force woke policies on voters and families. You punish them, not just because they deserve it, but also, as Voltaire famously put it, pour encourager les autres (as an example to others).
For many years now, only one side in this war has been crying “no quarter” before every battle. The other side has pretended not to believe it and surrendered time and again, with predictable results.
Finally, DeSantis and Florida Republicans have taken the enemy at their word, and responded in kind. Republicans everywhere should go and do likewise.
QUOTE: Twenty-six U.S. governors, all Republican, announced the creation of a Border Strike Force to “disrupt and dismantle transnational criminal organizations” on April 19.
The group of governors signed a memorandum of understanding, pledging to work together to “serve as a force multiplier to target cartels and criminal networks financially and operationally.”
“Together, governors will improve public safety, protect victims from horrific crimes, reduce the amount of drugs in our communities, and alleviate the humanitarian crisis at the Southern Border,” the agreement states.
The group includes two border states—Arizona and Texas—as well as 24 others: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
“In the absence of federal leadership, states are partnering together to create the American Governors’ Border Strike Force to disrupt and dismantle transnational criminal organizations by increasing collaboration, improving intelligence, investing in analysis, combating human smuggling, and stopping drug flow in our states,” the agreement states.
QUOTE: Workers required to get vaccinated by their employers could sue if they have negative reactions under a Missouri bill.
The GOP-led House gave the vaccine liability bill initial approval Wednesday. The measure was introduced in response to COVID-19 vaccination requirements.
Under the measure, employers who make their workers get a vaccine could be held liable if workers experience negative side effects.
Proponents argued that bosses should be held accountable for medical complications if they make employees get vaccinated.Critics argued that private business owners should be allowed to decide whether to mandate vaccinations without the threat of lawsuits.
Homeschooling Rate Remains High, Despite School Reopenings
When her children’s school reopened for full-time, in-person learning, this mom decided to continue homeschooling. Now, she is even happier with her decision, especially as homeschool classes and activities resume their pre-pandemic vibrancy.
New data analyzed this week by the Associated Press confirm that this mother’s experience is a common one. Homeschooling rates surged during the 2020/2021 academic year to more than 11 percent of the overall U.S. K-12 population, but many education observers expected that most of those families would return to school once classrooms reopened for in-person learning. That hasn’t happened.
“Homeschooling numbers this year dipped from last year’s all-time high, but are still significantly above pre-pandemic levels,” the Associated Press reported. It evaluated data from 18 states and found that while homeschooling numbers rose 63 percent in the 2020/2021 academic year, they only dropped by 17 percent this school year, remaining significantly elevated.
The largest demographic driver of the homeschooling surge in 2020/2021 were black families who unenrolled their children from school for independent homeschooling.
QUOTE: Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed a bill that makes it harder for faculty at state universities to retain tenure, framing the legislation as another way that he and the Legislature are working to prevent educators from bringing their political views into the classroom.
In a wide-ranging news conference at The Villages that took swings at Twitter and alleged that textbook publishers were peddling hidden agendas, DeSantis criticized what he called “lifetime appointments” for university professors.
“We need to make sure the faculty are held accountable and make sure they don’t just have tenure forever without having any type of ways to hold them accountable or evaluate what they’re doing,” DeSantis said. “It’s all about trying to make these institutions more in line with what the state’s priorities are, and frankly the priorities of the parents throughout the state of Florida.”
If you have not already cancelled Netflix and Disney Plus, do so this weekend.
Read. Know. Share. Pray. Fight.
Hold Fast,
Defending The Republic
