Former Netflix CEO Unveils Company’s “Secret Weapon”

In the next six months, streaming services from Disney+, WarnerMedia, and NBCUniversal will launch, planting a foundation in a world previously dominated by Netflix and Hulu. Despite the upcoming competition, former Netflix CEO Marc Randolph isn’t worried about the future of the company he once oversaw. According to Randolph, Netflix’s “secret weapon” — the ability to focus solely on content generation — is what will continue to separate the streaming giant from the rest of the marketplace.

“I mean, the only thing Netflix does is streaming and movies. They are very disciplined, very focused,” Randolph tells Fox News in a recent interview. “Whereas you look at Disney, which of course, has a studio, but they also have theme parks and they have cruise ships. You look at Apple, which, of course, has the retail stores and its hardware. The time that I think I’ll be worried about Netflix is when they come out with the Netflix theme park or the Netflix cell phone.”

The former executive has a point. Disney has plenty on its plate with theme parks and countless movie studios while Apple is busy with its cream of the crop retail business. Even looking at Warner and NBC, each has plenty of other commitments other than just the streaming platforms they’ve been busy building.

“I think actually for Netflix, it’s nice,” Randolph continues. “It gives them some discipline in terms of saying how are we going to compete and maintain our edge, maintain our prevalence in the streaming world. But I’m not worried. You know, Netflix always behaves like a startup, which means it’s always willing to do what it has to do to make sure it meets customer needs in the future and not relying on what it did in the past.”

Randolph helped create Netflix with Reed Hastings in the late 1990s. He served as CEO until being replaced by Hastings in 1999 and worked in product development at Netflix until he parted the company for good in 2002.

This time next year, what streaming platforms do you think you’ll be subscribed to? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or by tweeting me at @AdamBarnhardt to talk all things streaming!