Barry Diller: Apple ‘prancing around’ Hollywood, but those who chase Netflix are fools; no one can get to Netflix’s level of subscribers

“Before he became a tech mogul, IAC and Expedia Group chairman Barry Diller was a media mogul, working in executive roles at ABC, Paramount, and Fox. But now, he says, the people who used to have all the power in the entertainment business have a lot less,” Eric Johnson reports for Recode. “‘Hollywood is now irrelevant,’ Diller said on the latest episode of Recode Decode, hosted by Kara Swisher.”
Among many other things, Diller spoke of Netflix, Amazon, and Apple and the company’s widely-expected streaming content service:
Diller: Amazon’s model is saying, “If you join Prime, we’re giving you things. So our job is to get you to join Prime. If we can get you to do that by giving you Black Panther, or whatever, or The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, then great.” But that model, to people in the entertainment business, is like, “Oh my god, how did that happen? I don’t know how to do that one. I don’t know how. I only know how to serve my entertainment customer. I have no idea how to get somebody to join Prime, to do this, to get my end product which is a creative thing.” Anyway, that…
Swisher: Right. So where does that lead, because Apple is now moving very heavily into it after…
Diller: Well I wouldn’t say they’re heavily yet.
Swisher:Not heavily, but more. There’s money.
Diller: Well, they’re prancing around. They have their little feet in it. They’ve hired some people. They’re spending some money, but they do not have at least yet, although they’re going to announce something I think very soon or start their streaming service.
Everybody is going to play in this, but I think that those who chase Netflix are fools. Or try to compete with Amazon Prime, because I don’t think there’s any ability for anybody in the, let’s call it the media business, the entertainment business, who do so. And I’m not saying that other people can’t build services. Disney has good programming.
Swisher:They’re starting their streaming. Right.
Diller: They’ll get some subscribers. But to chase… Netflix has won this game. I mean, short of some existential event, it is Netflix’s. No one can get, I believe, to their level of subscribers, which gives them real dominance. They can outbid, and do…
Swisher:And they do.
Diller: …anyone, and they will continue to do so.
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Netflix most certainly can be caught. And passed. And outspent. By Apple. Easily.
Note: Apple has more cash on hand than Netflix is worth – $100 billion more.
In the fourth calendar quarter of 2018, Netflix posted revenue of $4.19 billion. In the same quarter, Apple posted revenue of $84.3 billion.
Netflix’s annual net income for 2018 was $1.211 billion. Apple”s annual net income for 2018 was $59.53 billion.
These companies are not in same league. They’re not even in the same solar system.
Diller clearly doesn’t grasp the size of Apple or the massive size of their installed base. There are more than 1.4 billion active Apple devices worldwide. iPhone alone last quarter surpassed 900 million devices with growth of nearly 75 million in the last 12 months alone.
You’d think Diller would be able to do basic math. Alas, his feckless statements reveal otherwise.
Diller’s comments have been iCal’ed for future use along with these gems:
• “We are not at all worried. We think we’ve got the one mobile platform you’ll use for the rest of your life. [Apple] are not going to catch up.” – Scott Rockfeld, Microsoft Mobile Communications Group Product Manager, April 01, 2008
• “There’s an old saying — stick to your knitting — and Apple is not a mobile phone manufacturer, that’s not their knitting… I think people overreacted to it — there was not a lot of tremendously new stuff if you think about it.” – Greg Winn, Telstra’s operations chief, February 15, 2007
• “The iPhone is nothing more than a luxury bauble that will appeal to a few gadget freaks. In terms of its impact on the industry, the iPhone is less relevant… Apple is unlikely to make much of an impact on this market… Apple will sell a few to its fans, but the iPhone won’t make a long-term mark on the industry.” – Matthew Lynn, Bloomberg, January 15, 2007
• “The economics of something like [an Apple iPhone] aren’t that compelling.” – Rod Bare, Morningstar analyst, December 08, 2006
• “We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.” – Ed Colligan, Palm CEO, November 16, 2006