DC launching digital service with Titans and Young Justice

http://deadline.com/2017/04/dc-digital-service-titans-young-justice-outsiders-1202076831/

Greg Berlanti and Akiva Goldsman to write and produce a live action Titans show.

Young Justice: Outsiders animated show produced by Brandon Vietti and Greg Weisman.

Well, that's neat.

 

According to DC Comics' Facebook post, it will not just be limited to DC Comics-based television shows and movies, but it will also include DC Comics digital comic books as well. In that, it seems like it will be a combination of Marvel Unlimited and CBS All Access.

And hooray for yet another digital streaming service!

 

Oh, I was expecting YJ to be on Netflix. This may make it harder for me to see it.

 

Ugh. When they didn't announce a home for the YJ revival , I knew it would not be Netflix. With the recent launching of a Boomerang stand alone streaming service (no cable subscription or authentication required) I assumed it would be YJ's new home. But another new service-and the 5th for Time Warner (Warner Archive Instant, HBO Now, FilmStruck-partnered with Critierion, Boomerang and now this).

The initial success of Netflix brought hopes of having a one stop shop for our entertainment needs, but the studio overlords pretty much killed that dream with fire. Now they'll all want multiple streaming services of their own, segregating their content across genre platforms. Convience be darned.

 

A combined service makes sense, if it was just TV it would look weird if the official paying DC channel had less shows than the free-to-air one.

On that note, I wonder if/how Titans will fit in any of the established universes.
It obviously won't be connected to the DCEU, because they have their own Nigthwing in the pipeline, and even though Berlanti is involved, neither Arrowverse Earth seems like a good fit(Roy and Wally exist on Earth-1, but the rest would be hard to explain there, and on Earth-38 the rest could possibly be handwaved away, but we do know Wally and Roy don't exist there(at least not as superheroes))

 

Damn, I had been pretty much assuming YJ would be on Netflix, so this is a big disappointment to me. It's really starting to frustrate me how many of these subscription services are starting to pop up. I already do Netflix and Amazon Prime and I can't really afford to pay for more services. I could maybe push it and do one more, but that would be it, but even then I don't know which I'd go with since they all have shows I want to see.

 

At worst, these shows will be out on DVD within a few months after their seasons end, so we can still get them on a delayed basis. That's how I got to see the PlayStation Network's Powers, which was out on DVD something like 3 months after the season finale. (In fact, thanks for the reminder -- I haven't seen season 2 yet, and I just requested it from the library.)

 

Yeah, but Netflix seems to wait over a year at times to release their shows. I know they'll probably be out eventually, but it's still annoying to know that they're out there and I can't (legally) watch them.

 

Not that it helps you Christopher, but I'm still hopeful that the international broadcast rights for Young Justice: Outsiders will go to Netflix (similarly to DSC).

 

So far, the announced team members are Nightwing, Starfire, Raven, and possibly Beast Boy (hinted by a hashtag in a Geoff Johns tweet). That's the entire animated Teen Titans cast except Cyborg. The primary Titans in the DC Universe animated movie continuity are Starfire, Raven, Beast Boy, Blue Beetle, and Robin/Damian Wayne, though their second movie established Speedy, Kid Flash, and Bumblebee as past members. So it'd be easy enough to do an Earth-38 Titans without Roy or Wally.

 

At my last count (about a month ago), there are over three dozen different paid video streaming services, all ranging in price from $3 to $12 per month. It's just going to get worse for another year or two. I imagine by 2022, it'll start consolidating. In the meantime...

 

Is that also counting the standalone services offered by the premium cable channels?
Here are the ones I've come across:
Hulu
Amazon Prime
Netflix
DC
Boomerang
HBOGO
Starz
Showtime
CBS All Access
Curiosity Stream
YouTubeRed
I've also found a few that do have free options, like Viki and Dramafever, which both offer foreign TV series and movies, mostly from Korea, China, and Taiwan.

 

The more I think about it, this seems like a very good idea on DC's part with next to no risk involved for them.

Comic book shows and movies are at the height of popularity, yet only a fraction of that audience actually buys comics. By launching a combined service, some of those people might be inclined to check the comics out since they're already there and "free", which could generate new readers in the long term.

And Titans and Young Justice are perfect shows to both draw audiences in, and also to promote comics because they pull characters from all corners of the DC universe.

 

Amazon Prime also has additional "channels" available for a monthly price. They're essentially additional streaming services under the amazon prime brand.

 

I'm just glad we're getting more Young Justice. I wish it was on Netflix, but there will eventually be DVDs and obviously other ways to see it. Titans sounds interesting. I'm assuming they're going with heroes mostly in their early 20s, which is why its not called Teen Titans, and with some of the CW people working on it I am definitely interested. If done right a Titans show could be great.

 

Yeah, I've looked at those, but for my count I was just including them in Amazon Prime. Thinking about it more though, since you have to pay separately, I probably would count them separately. There are a ton of them though, so I don't think I'm going to list them all.

 

I'm super enthused about this if it does include comics in a Marvel Unlimited style service. I pay $70 a year for Marvel Unlimited. I'd easily drop a bit more for a similar DC service that also included video content. I'd still come out ahead from where I am buying DC monthly via Comixology.

 

Given Akiva Goldsman's involvement, I'm pretty sure this is just a revival of the Titans project that TNT ultimately changed their minds on, which had an announced character lineup of Nightwing, Raven, Starfire, Hawk and Dove (Hank and Dawn, and Barbara Gordon.

Adding Beast Boy to that lineup makes a lot of sense, especially since it had been speculated that he might eventually end up joining the team had the show made it to air and been successful.

 

I'd love to see Young Justice, but I'm not paying for another service to see it.

 

Logical, but there's always the possiblity that the lineup could still change. After all, if the version with that lineup was rejected, they might decide a different lineup would work better. Or the execs they're answering to now might be interested in different characters than the TNT execs. They might drop Barbara because of the Joss Whedon Batgirl movie that's been announced. Or, with Berlanti now involved, they might want to add more diversity to the group with someone like Jaime Reyes/Blue Beetle or Aqualad (since Cyborg's now a Justice Leaguer). Though it would certainly make sense to cast a dark-skinned actress as Starfire.