Netflix Chair Says Disney Is Biggest Rival and Role Model
Recently a journalist from Bloomberg sat down with Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings and asked him who he felt is currently his biggest competitor. The answer, it seems, was easy.
“Disney,” he said. “If you’d asked us a year ago, ‘What are the odds that they’re going to get to 60 million subscribers in the first year?’ I’d be like 0. I mean how can that happen? It’s been super impressive execution.”
Hastings was speaking to Lucas Shaw at Bloomberg on the release of his new book No Rules Broken which is a guidebook on how to recreate Netflix’s successful model of “corporate culture.” Shaw says that though the book doesn’t delve to much into streaming it is a guide to how someone matured from “the geekiest of the geek” to a mogul worth $6 billion.
When asked about the future of TV, Hastings held firm to his previous argument that many streaming services CAN succeed at the same time. He argues that Disney has not been bad for Netflix. Instead Netflix is set to have its best year despite Disney+’s incredible growth. He adds, “There is no such thing as subscription fatigue.” Hastings continues “Disney has ‘The Mandalorian’ and we have ‘Stranger Things.’ They are somewhat complementary. People will subscribe to both.”
Though Disney had an incredible first year it still has a ways to go before catching up the streaming juggernaut that is Netflix. Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ have about 100 million subscribers. Netflix currently has around 190 subscribers. He added that through the Disney/Fox merger, the company has become sort of a model and he believes similar consolidation plans maybe something we see more of in the future.
So what’s next for Netflix? You can definitely see a bit of the Disney ethos in Hastings plans to build new franchises around their shows. Along with co-CEO Ted Sarando, they want to “identify stories that can stretch across multiple TV shows, movies, toys, lunch boxes.” They could certainly take a few pages out of Disney’s book including successful franchises like Star Wars with The Mandalorian or even the Marvel Cinematic Universe which will see overlap on projects including Dr. Strange, WandaVision (Disney+), Loki (Disney+) and more!
This is a story that we’ll continue to follow closely here at MickeyBlog so keep checking in with us for further news and updates!
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Source: Bloomberg