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Netflix doesn’t need to promote itself to Microsoft. It does need to get actually deep into the video games enterprise. Elon Musk is a courageous man, and we should always minimize him some slack. And did we point out that Netflix actually, actually needs to be in video games?
These are among the takeaways from Netflix founder and co-CEO Reed Hastings’s look on the New York Occasions Dealbook convention as we speak, and I’m going to go deeper on them in a minute.
However first, a little bit little bit of context: I went to as we speak’s occasion as a result of it was a reasonably uncommon likelihood to see Hastings communicate in public — one thing he’s accomplished little or no of in recent times past the quarterly earnings calls his firm hosts. And we actually haven’t heard a lot from Hastings since April, when Netflix introduced a stunning subscriber loss — and, simply as shockingly, a transfer into promoting, which the corporate had all the time insisted it wouldn’t do.
These bulletins and the implication behind them — if Netflix, the clear chief in streaming, was already beginning to run into progress and income issues, then it meant everybody chasing Netflix was going to run into the identical issues — helped bitter media buyers on the streaming business Netflix had pioneered.
And as Dealbook host Andrew Ross Sorkin famous, the final time Hastings got here to New York for this convention was three years in the past, just a few months earlier than the pandemic locked down a lot of the world and a time when Netflix was the north star for streaming, with subsequent to no competitors. However for those who have been on the lookout for Hastings to throw out a mea culpa about getting streaming incorrect — or absolutely anything else incorrect — you’d be disillusioned with this interview: Hastings nonetheless thinks nearly all the things Netflix was doing three years in the past continues to be appropriate as we speak.
However this was a wide-ranging interview, and it wasn’t streamed, so I need to pull out some highlights for you right here.
Video games, video games, video games: Netflix first introduced a foray into video video games again within the spring of 2021. Looking back, that transfer was a a lot clearer sign that it was anxious about the way forward for streaming than most of us picked up on on the time. And since then, Netflix has purchased just a few small recreation studios and launched a pair dozen informal video games. However neither the gaming business nor Wall Avenue appears to suppose Netflix can be an actual competitor in video games. So it was fascinating that all through the interview, Hastings repeatedly talked about his curiosity in video games, with out prompting. Netflix, he stated again and again, needs to make nice TV reveals, films, and video games. And when requested about Netflix’s well-reported curiosity in moving into sports activities, he answered with this: “Speak to us after we’re a giant chief in video games. We have now a variety of funding to do in video games.” Message acquired.
Talking of sports activities: Hastings wasn’t requested immediately about Netflix bidding on dwell sports activities rights (although different executives within the area have advised me Netflix has accomplished so). However when requested about his just lately introduced transfer to livestream a Chris Rock comedy particular subsequent 12 months, Hastings instantly dismissed the concept this was a precursor to streaming dwell sports activities. “That’s not true.” Livestreaming, he stated, can be used for issues like comedy, and possibly “contestant reveals,” which sort of sound like sports activities to me however I’m assuming means stuff like Netflix’s “Love Is Blind” actuality reveals/contests.
Netflix + Microsoft = ? Requested to clarify why Netflix had picked Microsoft to be its associate in its foray into promoting, Hastings was fairly clear: Microsoft paid Netflix some huge cash. Or in his phrases: “They have been keen to be very aggressive within the deal.” However Hastings insisted that this doesn’t sign an eventual sale to Microsoft, which plenty of business of us have speculated about. “It’s not regular to do industrial offers with folks you’re attempting to accumulate,” he stated. “That makes it extra sophisticated, not much less.”
Sticking with bingeing, and Chappelle: One of many many issues Hollywood thinks Netflix ought to do to be extra like Hollywood is dispense with its custom of dropping all of its reveals without delay. Netflix has began to play with that concept a bit (this summer season it cut up its latest Stranger Issues season into two chunks). However Hastings says Netflix received’t do away with it as a result of he doesn’t have to — different streamers have to unfold their reveals out, he stated, as a result of they don’t have as many reveals folks like — and since prospects prefer it.
Asking whether or not prospects would like a world the place they’ve to attend per week to see a brand new episode is not sensible, he stated — it will be akin to asking “would you somewhat learn yesterday’s information or as we speak’s?” And Hastings additionally stated Netflix had no regrets concerning the Dave Chappelle specials it launched, during which the comic has more and more targeted on battling trans activists. These specials have been massive hits for the service, he stated, and “we’d do it time and again.”
Elon and Mark: Hastings, who was once on Meta’s board of administrators, provided muted reward for Mark Zuckerberg’s push into digital actuality and the metaverse: “I feel the world ought to be saying, ‘Thanks, Mark, for advancing this nice know-how,’” he stated. “[But] I don’t know if it’s nice for shareholders.”
Hastings was fulsome about his admiration for Elon Musk, who he referred to as “the bravest, most inventive particular person on the planet.” Hastings famous that Musk’s private fashion is extra … bombastic than his, however stated that Musk’s critics are getting it incorrect: “I’m 100% satisfied that he’s attempting to assist the world,” he stated, and argued that we should always reward him for paying $44 billion for Twitter as an alternative of, say, constructing a extremely massive yacht. “Give this man a break.”
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