Now that Apple TV+ and Disney+ are live and ready to take your subscription dollars, two of the biggest companies in the world have officially entered the Streaming Wars. But over at Netflix, who is currently the dominant force in the aforementioned conflict, the executives, such as Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos, aren’t worried.
Speaking at the Paley Center’s International Council Summit in New York (via Deadline), Sarandos was asked about the debut of Disney+ and the incoming flood of new streaming services from some of the biggest studios in the world. And perhaps a bit overly confident, the Netflix executive isn’t concerned about his empire toppling anytime soon.
READ MORE: Disney+ Touts 10 Million Sign-Ups On Its First Day Of Streaming
“We’ve been competing with Disney and all these other folks who are coming into this from the beginning,” Sarandos said. “For us, nothing really changes. We’ve always been customer-first and we don’t really get distracted by competition. We figured at some point everyone would get into this business.”
Not only is he not surprised that Disney is now in the streaming business, but he said he’s “frankly surprised it took Disney and other people this long to go down this path. It’s a hard change.”
Sarandos added, “These companies that have been built on making and selling content to other people, can they actually make more money or do better in business selling it directly to the consumer?…It’s a hard bet, and it’s a bet-the-farm one.”
So, why is Sarandos and the folks at Netflix so confident that they’re service will be just fine in the end? Well, the executive says that the coveted content library that Disney+ and other studios are so proud of might be their downfall, as consumer interests could change over time. He said that Netflix creates original content and isn’t tied down to specific “universes.”
“I do think the risk of being bound in a few universes is that there sometimes may be a melting ice cube of interest over time,” Sarandos said. “You have to keep reinventing, which is great. But I like the ability to keep reinventing across the platforms, across the universes, across programming ideas and programming verticals, without the constraints of a handful of universes.”
Well, even though it’s far too early to tell the full story of Disney+ and its recent launch, the early numbers point to the service having a pretty successful debut, with more than 10 million people signing up in the first 24 hours. Obviously, that’s a far cry from the Netflix user base which is over 125 million worldwide, but Disney+ is only available in three countries, United States, Canada, and the Netherlands, and is still in its early development.
In fact, Disney+ isn’t predicted that it’ll hit 60 million subscribers until 2024. So, for the foreseeable future, Sarandos and the rest of the bigwigs over at Netflix have plenty of time as the top dog in streaming. But with Apple TV+, HBO Max, and Peacock all hoping to take a piece of the streaming pie, Netflix will likely have to take its competition a bit more seriously in the future.
