This year marks a turning point in the oft-discussed Streaming Wars. With Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video already carving out their place in the wallets of consumers, Apple and Disney are poised to enter the fray, along with a variety of other companies. But according to Netflix executive Ted Sarandos, Apple and Disney are just a little late to the game.
“I have no idea what they’re doing until we see it,” Sarandos said in an interview with Deadline. “So, I have to really reserve comment and judgment.”
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That being said, it doesn’t appear that Sarandos is totally reserved, and is ready to pass just a little bit of judgment, namely just how these companies have waited too long to enter the streaming space and Netflix already has a chokehold on the competition.
“We’ve been competing with 500 channels of cable and penetrated nearly every household in the world for a long time,” he said. “So, it’s the same stable of competitors just very late to the game.”
It’s not just the massive number of users that Netflix has that is going to keep them at the top of the streaming pile. What is going to separate the streaming service from the likes of Disney and Apple is the fact that the reach that Netflix has extends to pretty much every country on the planet. And it’s by leveraging that user base that is going to keep Netflix as the top dog in streaming.
“We need to be good in parallel in getting Hollywood content to the world and more importantly from the world to everywhere else in the world,” Sarandos said.
Apple is expected to formally announce its TV offering soon, and Disney+ is expected to launch later this year. Both companies have seemingly endless amounts of money, so if anyone has the chance to rival the scope of Netflix, it would be these two companies. Needless to say, 2019 is going to be an interesting year for streaming services.
