Sarandos: Competitors are Just ‘Reducing Content and Raising Prices’ While Netflix Continues to Add Titles
The Netflix co-CEO pointed specifically to the fact that his streamer kept the content pipeline flowing during the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.
The Streaming Wars may be giving way to the Age of Aggregation at the moment, but Netflix is happy to savor its position as the winner of the war. With 247.15 million subscribers worldwide, Netflix is far and away the world’s largest streamer, and even recent strikes by Hollywood’s biggest writers’ and actors’ unions didn’t seem to slow it down.
- Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos criticized the wave of streaming services slashing content and raising prices at a conference this week.
- Sarandos pointed out Netflix managed to keep adding new content during WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, and pipeline won’t slow down.
- Netflix projects a similar subscriber gain to last quarter’s 8.76 million in Q4, and will keep content spend at $17 billion in 2024.
Sassy Sarandos
The confidence at Netflix is palpable these days, as the words of the company’s co-CEO Ted Sarandos at the 2023 USB Global Media and Communications Conference earlier this week. Speaking at the conference, Sarandos took the opportunity to bash the wave of streaming services who have spent much of the year slashing content and hitting up their customers for more money.
“Our competitors seem to be reducing content and raising prices,” Sarandos said.
In one sense, Sarandos is correct. Warner Bros. Discovery spent much of 2022 axing titles that didn’t meet its viewership requirements on what was then called HBO Max. That streaming service raised prices ahead of its transformation into Max this year, and CEO David Zaslav has indicated more price increases are on the way.
Disney+ and Hulu underwent a round of content cuts this year as well, and saw prices rise for the second time in less than a year in October. Paramount also rooted out some titles from its streaming library, and each streaming platform is trying to work out the profitability equation that Netflix has cracked.
No Strike Slowdown
A good deal of Sarandos’ current confidence comes from the fact that his streamer didn’t slow down its content output during strikes by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA. Indeed, new seasons of “Bridgerton,” “Cobra Kai” and “Emily in Paris” are all set to debut next year, and Zach Snyder’s “Rebel Moon” is gearing up to launch on the streamer later this month.
But it is fair to point out that Sarandos speaks from a place of undeniable strength. As the only streaming service which reports being profitable quarter after quarter, Netflix hasn’t had to resort to content cuts to help reduce its losses. It’s figured out how to make streaming pay, while its competitors have not, and most of them have linear channels with sagging revenues to increase the sense of urgency for achieving streaming success. It’s also worth noting that while some streamers have cut content in the past couple of years, net additions have outweighed subtractions for every streaming service besides Prime Video since 2021.
The strikes did not have a real affect on Netflix’s future content spends, either. Sarandos confirmed Netflix will spend around $17 billion on content in 2024, the same amount it spent in 2022 and 2023. He also forecast a fourth quarter subscriber addition similar to the one the streamer saw in Q3, when it added 8.76 million new customers.
Position of privilege or no, Sarandos’ comments about the strategies of other streaming services are largely true on their face. But they also pay no heed to the fact that executives of competing streaming services don’t see a choice in the matter; it’s either cut content and raise prices, or give up and leave the streaming game altogether.
Netflix
Netflix is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 3,000+ movies, 2,000+ TV Shows, and Netflix Originals like Stranger Things, Squid Game, The Crown, Tiger King, and Bridgerton. They are constantly adding new shows and movies. Some of their Academy Award-winning exclusives include Roma, Marriage Story, Mank, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.