Netflix Not 'Underachieving' Amid Disney+ Success, Co-CEO Says

Co-CEO Reed Hastings denied Netflix is “underachieving” as it watched Disney+ exceed 86 million subscribers in the first year after its November 2019 launch, compared with roughly 40 million for Netflix in the same period. “It's super impressive what Disney has done,” he said on Tuesday night’s Q4 discussion. Disney’s success shows that consumers are “willing to pay more for more content because they're hungry for great stories,” said Hastings. The Disney+ track record “gets us fired up about increasing our membership, increasing our content budget,” he said. “It’s going to be great for the world that Disney and Netflix are competing show by show, movie by movie, and we're really fired up about catching them in family animation, maybe eventually passing them.” Netflix has “never had any issue with movies being in theaters,” said co-CEO and Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos. “Our biggest issue has been that you had to commit to this very long window of exclusivity to get access to any theaters.” Sarandos would love to give consumers the choice between seeing movies in theaters or at home, “which is becoming the norm” during the pandemic. Hastings predicts that consumers will return to theaters in “significant numbers” beginning in 2021's second half. He’s carefully watching WarnerMedia’s strategy of debuting its 2021 film slate simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max to see if it sets a “path” for future distribution trends, he said. Netflix beat its forecast on net subscriber adds (see 2101190066). “This is one of the more uniquely challenging times, not just for life,” but also for trying to forecast “the growth trajectory of the business,” said Chief Financial Officer Spencer Neumann. “There's just so much uncertainty.” COVID-19 has “accelerated that big shift from linear to streaming entertainment,” he said. The stock was up 17% to $589.60 at 2:15 p.m. EST Wednesday.