Netflix Starts to Feel the Heat
While imitation services from Disney and Apple don't have the same appeal, their presence ensures a continuing cash burn.
Netflix’s biggest threat is still what it’s always been: its own rising debt and content obligations.
Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/BloombergDisney+ and other new streaming-TV apps are starting to nip at Netflix Inc.’s heels. While that means Netflix will have an even tougher time enticing new users, its streaming imitators aren’t giving subscribers reason enough to cancel the tried-and-true service.
For the first time ever, Netflix has serious competition, and Tuesday’s fourth-quarter results offered a first glimpse at what that might look like. When Walt Disney Co. joined the streaming wars in November, it came in like a wrecking ball, signing up an incredible 10 million users for Disney+ on its first day alone, many of them eager to watch a new “Star Wars” series called “The Mandalorian.” The service, which costs about half as much as Netflix, is estimated to have more than doubled its base since then. That same month, Apple Inc. released Apple TV+, with its own flagship series “The Morning Show” boasting an all-star cast led by Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon. Meanwhile, 548,000 people in North America signed up for Netflix during the period, which is either an impressive feat or a foreboding signal, depending on how you look at it.