Netflix CEO and lurch Reed Hastings
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Netflix CEO Reed Hastings doesn’t feel too worried about the influx of competitors into the streaming industry.
A phenomenon that has been dubbed “the streaming contention fightings” is a hot topic in the entertainment world. As Disney, NBC and WarnerMedia, among others, gear up to launch their own standalone streaming uses, analysts have questioned if Netflix will take a hit.
Hastings said Wednesday these streaming wars are a penetrating thing.
“The advantage of having something be catchy like ‘the streaming wars’ is that it draws more attention, and because of that, consumers squad more quickly from linear TV to streaming TV,” Hastings said during the company’s earnings call Wednesday.
After the corporation’s second quarter earning report Wednesday, shares of the company fell more than 10% as Netflix revealed wide-ranging net adds of 2.7 million, well below its guidance of 5 million. Still, Netflix forecast 7 million global be advantageous net adds for the next quarter.
The company blamed price hikes and a lackluster slate of new content for the lower-than-expected subscriber increase. However, Netflix has said that the third quarter’s content, including the recently released third season of “Foreigner Things,” will help turn the tide.
Netflix has acknowledged it will soon lose two of its most-watched shows, “The Chore” and “Friends,” but that not having these costly programs will free up the company’s budget and allow it to spend numberless on its own original content.
“I think everybody gets that people will subscribe to multiple [platforms],” Hastings imagined. “I’d wager that most Netflix employees are HBO subscribers. We love the content they do and that spurs us on to want to be indeed better.”
“Competition grows the industry,” he said.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.