Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos Addresses Amazon, Apple & Max’s Streaming Strategies, And He Doesn’t See Them As Real Competition

Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos considers the streaming strategies of Amazon, Apple, and Max. Though its subscriber stability has waxed and waned in recent years, Netflix remains one of the most formidable streaming giants in the business. Originally founded as a DVD subscription service, Netflix introduced its streaming platform in 2007, making it one of the longest-running services in the industry. As the years have gone on, more and more compeтιтors have come about, including Disney’s streaming platform Disney+, HBO’s Max, and Amazon’s Prime Video, among others.

Speaking with Variety, Sarandos addresses the streaming strategies of compeтιтors like Amazon, Apple, and Disney. In the interview, Sarandos was asked to speak about several different streaming services and to what extent he saw them as compeтιтors to Netflix. He said that he does not see Prime Video as a real compeтιтor to Netflix when it comes to TV and movie production. He boasted Netflix’s “investment in personalization” and genre diversity as one of the key elements of its content. Check out the full interview exchange below:

Variety: When your suppliers, like Disney, became your compeтιтors and started launching their own streaming services, especially in the early days of the pandemic, were you concerned they’d catch up?

Sarandos: I felt a lot more comfortable that we would do better at this than they would. Our advantage is the investment we’ve made in personalization. We are not a one-genre label. If you love documentary, Netflix is the doc house. If you love drama, it’s the drama house. As long as we have the ability to do that, we’re going to be fine.

Variety: Let’s talk about some of the other streamers. The last time you were on our cover, back in 2017, you talked about how you didn’t understand Amazon’s original content strategy.

Sarandos: This is just me as an observer. Sports has been very effective. And I don’t know if that’s their entire strategy.

Variety: Do you see them competing with Netflix when it comes to movies or TV production?

Sarandos: I don’t. It’s hard for me to say. I don’t know what their long-term plans are. They’ve been streaming exactly as long as we have. They’ve been making original content exactly as long as we have.

Variety: What about Apple?

Sarandos: I don’t understand it beyond a marketing play, but they’re really smart people. Maybe they see something we don’t.

Variety: You have long admired HBO as a viewer. What did you think when they dropped the “HBO” from “HBO Max” and went with “Max” as the name of their streaming service?

Sarandos: It was a surprise! We would always watch what HBO was doing, and at one point they had HBO, HBO Go, HBO Now and HBO Max. And I said, “When they’re serious, all those names will go away, and it’ll just be HBO.” I would have never guessed HBO would have gone away. They put all that effort into one thing that they can tell the consumer — it should be HBO.

What This Means For Netflix

Smaller Streaming Services Also Boast Significant Shows

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While Sarandos is not completely dismissive of all of his fellow streamers’ strategies, he does seem to find Netflix superior in every way. Even when presenting himself with the knowledge that Prime Video has “been making original content exactly as long as” Netflix has, he still answered with the negative when asked whether the streamer was a compeтιтor. For Apple, he went so far as to say that he doesn’t “understand it beyond a marketing play.” He leaves “it” vague here, but it could refer to the entire streaming service.

The interview notably omits some other up-and-coming streaming networks. Paramount+ has only been around since March 2021, for example, but its executives have prided themselves on creating high-quality content. Leaning especially into Taylor Sheridan shows, Paramount+ has produced well-reviewed and star-studded projects such as Lioness, Tulsa King, Mayor of Kingstown, and Landman. The network may not have the kind of tenure to compete with Netflix yet, but it certainly has a good track record thus far.

Our Take On Ted Sarandos’ Netflix Perspective

Netflix’s Content Volume Is Impressive

Sarandos is certainly right about Netflix’s genre breadth. With recent successful projects including everything from American Murder: Gabby Peтιтo and Carry-On to Nobody Wants This, Netflix has certainly produced a tonally diverse set of content that can appeal to multiple different types of audiences. As evidenced by a chart in a recent RT analysis from Puck, Netflix is also responsible for much higher volumes of content, at least movie-wise, than some of its compeтιтors. While Sarandos may be bold in his statements, his thoughts on Netflix‘s dominance do come from a place of truth.

Source: Variety