During the pandemic, Netflix has become so dominant that over the next few years they will be able to launch a movie every day, something their competition simply won’t be able to match.
Netflix may soon be able to introduce one movie or series every day says media analyst and WinView Chairman Tom Rogers. “They’re on their way to $20 billion dollar programming budget which will probably allow them to be introducing a new movie or series just about every day.”
Netflix Really Isn’t In The Streaming War
It’s going to become increasingly clear that with all the talk of streaming wars Netflix really isn’t in that war. Netflix is really in a category by itself. It was in this state before COVID but over COVID it’s really established itself as the default streaming service. There’s a war going on between the other services as to what else subscribers are going to have particularly as they cut the cord. But Netflix increasingly is in a category by itself.
Netflix had huge subscriber growth last quarter, they had about 10 million subs. They guided to a much lower number for this quarter suggesting that a lot of those subs were pulled forward. But the sub number is much less of an issue for Netflix as compared to the other services. Netflix has already added in the first half of the year about 26 million subs. In all of 2019, they added 29 million subs. In 2020, they’re going to blow out last year’s numbers.
Netflix Will Launch One Movie a Day
With Netflix, it’s much more of a story of just how much engagement they have going on and how much more time people are spending watching their service. Their total engagement is about the same as all the legacy media companies streaming services together, Hulu Disney+, HBO, Peacock, and Showtime. They’re just way out there in terms of the time spent. The reason for that is their programming budget is so enormous compared to any of the legacy media company streaming services.
They’re out there today with a $15 billion dollar programming budget. It looks like it’s on its way probably in the next few years to a $20 billion dollar programming budget which will probably allow them to be introducing a new movie or series just about every day. That’s just something that none of the other services can touch. The engagement that brings with it is huge.
Netflix Pricing Power Is Critical To Their Success
There are no more free trials. The pricing power that brings is also critical. They just raised the price in Canada bringing it to $14.99 for the core package that people take. I would listen very hard on this earnings call to hints of price rises here. They really have such an enormous price to value relationship, huge value perception among consumers.
That pricing power is something that the other streaming services just haven’t established yet. Whether you look at Disney+ or you look at HBO Max so many free subs promotionally are out there still.