Netflix Stock Falls After CEO Admits Tough Competition Is Coming From Disney And Apple

Netflix has grown to become the kind of streaming services, and while the service is still growing they are about to get a whole other level of competition with Disney, Apple, HBO Max, and now Peacock entering the market soon. Disney and Apple’s services are up first though, and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is all too aware of the battle that’s coming. In a new interview Hastings admitted that both Disney and Apple will be offering up some tough competition to the streaming giant, and as CNBC has since noted, that admission did result in Netflix shares sliding by 5.5% on Friday. You can find Hastings’ full quote about the coming competition below.

“While we’ve been competing with many people in the last decade, it’s a whole new world starting in November…between Apple launching and Disney launching, and of course Amazon’s ramping up,” Hastings told Variety. “It’ll be tough competition. Direct-to-consumer [customers] will have a lot of choice.”

Hastings also mentioned NBCUniversal’s upcoming Peacock service, which has dished out plenty of money to grab some Netflix staples like The Office, Parks and Recreation, and Frasier to stick on its service. It paid over $500 million for The Office alone, which has grown even more in popularity thanks to being streamable on Netflix over the past few years.

Overall Netflix shares have fallen 10% over the past month, and are down 30% from its highs. We’ll have to wait and see if Netflix can bring those back up throughout the rest of the year, as the streaming giant has plenty of new content coming over the next few months.

The biggest fight will undoubtedly be against Disney+. Disney’s new streaming service launches in November and will feature not only all of Disney’s animated and live-action movie content but will also feature a slew of shows from Disney Channel and original series like High School Musical. Then you count the Star Wars content (including The Mandalorian) and all the Marvel films and animated series and you’ve got quite a combo, and that’ snot even including The Simpsons and the other Fox content they brought in after the 20th Century Fox deal.

Apple is entering the game with much less content, but they have the budget and the connections to make a serious play, and Peacock and HBO Max will also bring their own libraries of content to the battle. Things are about to get very interesting in the streaming space.