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Apple plans a big announcement to unveil its new video strategy next week. Many unknowns remain about Apple's projects. We now know one thing: Netflix will not be one of them.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings confirmed Monday that the company would not sell subscriptions to its video service via a hub that Apple plans to launch, similar to the one already used by Amazon to sell video subscription services like HBO and Showtime. Facebook is working on a similar plan.
"Apple is a great company. We want people to watch our shows on our services, "Hastings said at a press event Monday in Los Angeles.
This is not surprising since Netflix has been phasing out of Apple in recent years – the same period in which Apple is increasingly interested in producing its own video programming.
In 2016, for example, when Apple launched a new "TV" app, designed to be a digital TV guide, Netflix has never joined. And at the end of last year, Apple stopped selling subscriptions to its service through its Apple store. Asked about this decision on Monday, Netflix content manager Ted Sarandos shrugged and said Apple was not a major source of revenue for his company.
Asked time and time again about how Netflix would compete with new competitors, including AT & T's Apple, Disney and WarnerMedia, Hastings used riff variants he had used in the past: Competition is great for Netflix, consumers and content creators.
After stating that he would "hardly compete with newcomers", Hastings opted for a more optimistic answer: "These are amazing, large and well-funded companies … but you do your best when you have big competitors.
Hastings said this for years when he was asked about competitors like HBO and Amazon. He also rightly said that these services have evolved along with the growth of Netflix, so its success does not have to be on the expense.
What's different now is the large number of services that are trying to sell video subscriptions directly to consumers, as Hastings has been doing for years. And it's hard to imagine that they will all succeed at the same time.
It is technically possible that some people would like to subscribe, for example, to Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, WarnerMedia, Apple, Disney Plus, ESPN Plus, HBO, Showtime, Starz and CBS All Access. But there will not be many of these people. Some of these services will not win.
Other news: While investors have bundled Netflix with highly regarded consumer companies such as Facebook, Apple and Amazon, Hastings says his company is not really a technology company, at least not regarding regulation.
After I asked him what role American lawmakers should play in regulating large technology companies on issues such as privacy and antitrust, Hastings said his company was really a business. of media, like Disney.
His argument: Netflix spends $ 1.2 billion a year on technology and about $ 10 billion on video programming. So we are essentially a content company optimized by technology. "
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