Netflix CEO Says “Disney+ Has Fired Them Up”
This week Netflix announced its latest quarterly results, which saw the streaming service hit over 200 million subscribers globally after pulling in another 8.5 million subscribers in the last quarter. The news of this accomplishment sent the shares of Netflix soaring over 10%.
In a statement to investors, the company recognised the impact other streaming services like Disney+ had been having:
“The big growth in streaming entertainment has led legacy competitors like Disney, WarnerMedia and Discovery to compete with us in new ways, which we’ve been expecting for many years. This is, in part, why we have been moving so quickly to grow and further strengthen our original content library across a wide range of genres and nations.”
During the companies Investor Call, Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings spoke about the success of Disney+ and even how they are planning on combating with more family-friendly content of their own:
It’s super-impressive what Disney has done. It’s incredible execution for an incumbent to pivot … so that’s great. And it shows that members are interested and willing to pay more for more content because they’re hungry for great stories. And Disney does have some great stories. It gets us fired up about increasing our membership, increasing our content budget and it’s going to be great for the world that Disney and Netflix are competing show by show, movie by movie. We’re very fired up about catching them in family animation — maybe eventually passing them, we’ll see, a long way to go just to catch them — and maintaining our lead in general entertainment that’s so stimulating…I don’t think you’re going to see [a Bridgerton] on Disney anytime soon.
Check out the full interview below:
“Bridgerton” is no doubt a huge hit for Netflix, with millions of people enjoying the show and they’ve also created many great shows like “Stranger Things” and “The Crown”. While it’s true that 2020 saw Disney+ only have one big hit series in “The Mandalorian”, 2021 is when Marvel will be coming in with a whopping 5 live-action series, in addition to other new shows like “Star Wars: The Book Of Boba Fett” and many other new shows in the works.
In terms of family entertainment, this has been part of the Walt Disney Company for nearly 100 years and they’ve created hundreds of iconic characters. While Netflix dominated 2020 in terms of their excellent series, Disney dominated the movies with titles like Frozen 2 and Moana still pulling in a huge number of views.
Netflix is the biggest streaming service on the planet and has no doubt given the traditional media companies like Disney, Comcast and TimeWarner a shakeup. This fierce competition will ultimately result in better content for all consumers, forcing Disney to improve what their streaming services provide by not just making better shows and films, but also offering more choice to keep consumers engaged and subscribers.
Do you think Netflix can beat Disney at family entertainment?
Roger Palmer
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Said this before. The entire streaming landscape consists of Disney and Netflix locked in a bare knuckle cage match with Amazon popping in now and again, while the other platforms gaze on longingly.