Netflix is hitching its wagon to the future being video content delivered over the Internet. That basic belief underpins its bold move to de-emphasize its DVDs-by-mail business in favor of its streaming offering. CEO Reed Hastings wrote his quarterly letter to investors after a successful fourth quarter for the company, which now boasts 21.7 million streaming customers. Hastings sees Netflix’s competition less as Hulu Plus, but more as TV Everywhere.
Just as broadcast networks have substantially transformed themselves into cable channels over the last 20 years, both broadcast and cable networks will effectively also become Internet networks like Netflix. As a pure-play we have many advantages, however, just as cable did over broadcast. We are 100 percent on-demand and highly-personalized. Our brand is broad, rather than niche, so we can combine the benefits of multiple channels into one service. Additionally, our Internet culture enables us to create and drive social TV, recommendations TV, and other Internet innovations faster than our cable and broadcast network competitors.
Read Hasting’s full letter from the Netflix website.
More in Media
AI Briefing: How political startups are helping small political campaigns scale content and ads with AI
With about 100 days until Election Day, politically focused startups see AI as a way to help national and local candidates quickly react to unexpected change.
Media Briefing: Publishers reassess Privacy Sandbox plans following Google’s cookie deprecation reversal
Google’s announcement on Monday to reverse its plans to fully deprecate third-party cookies from its Chrome browser seems to have, in turn, reversed some publishers’ stances on the Privacy Sandbox.
Why Google’s cookie deprecation reversal isn’t actually a reprieve for publishers
Publishers are keeping a “business as usual” approach to testing cookieless alternatives despite Google’s announcement that it won’t be fully deprecating third-party cookies after all.