Welcome back to closing bell on cheddar news, everyone
on the long weekend marking the unofficial start of summer.
And it may also mark the start of a streaming wars battle heating up
between netflix and Disney plus
the two services releasing fan favorites over the weekend, Stranger Things,
season four and OBI wan Kenobi based on the iconic Star Wars character.
So will netflix CIA subscriber boost after its first quarter slump and will Disney
get a leg up as it tries to beat netflix on sub numbers ahead?
Well, joining me now to break it down, is that Shatner,
managing director at Stratton America's a consulting firm specializing
in media and type partnerships.
Said it's great to see you as,
so this weekend's head to head matchup isn't going to yield a clear winner,
can both be winners in effect.
Great to be here Kristin.
Yeah, I mean, look,
there's a ton of interesting stuff going on
right now in the overall Hollywood film business,
but I mean, I think you think about it kind of head to head.
Um I'm kind of on the Disney side actually.
So I think, I think they're probably the ones that are, you know,
the horse that's coming up in the race.
Netflix has been under,
you know, a ton of subscriber pressure.
They've obviously had some subscriber losses and
quite a bit of attention on that and um I think they
probably have more to lose than than any other right now,
but I like the whole Disney model.
Uh you know,
the OBI one Kenobi uh series is coming out in just like two pieces to start.
So it's sort of staggered and staged in, whereas the,
you know, the offering from netflix, it's,
I guess it's the fourth season of Stranger Things and it's,
it's kind of a bigger dump of content, you know, in two pieces.
So to me, I kind of like Disney in the race right now.
And it is interesting because I know Disney pushing that OBI
wan Kenobi released death from last Wednesday to last friday.
How much does a decision like that from a strategic standpoint? You think change
in terms of viewership and even potential new subscribers?
Well if you're looking at sort of the overall media business, particularly,
you know,
Hollywood and the way studios have done things and we're talking about streamers.
To me, it's hugely important, you know, and kind of the uh,
the days prior to streamers studios, I don't know if they would coordinate,
but they would certainly watch
who's coming into theaters and when and, and you know,
that you could probably also look at,
I don't know, big events like the Super Bowl or Oscars
and strategize around that. So I think it,
it makes a lot of sense in streaming.
And I think it's actually quite smart strategically to
start thinking about what you release and when,
and, and how much,
so I I like that approach that they're at least thinking about it that way.
And I again, I kind of tilt to Disney and what they're doing there.
It's interesting.
So Wall Street has both of these stocks moving in
practical lockstep this afternoon step after the long holiday weekend.
Both stocks up 1.4% literally to the T
they were as the segment started. Look, I mean literally does not get any closer
than that. Of course Netflix does seem to have more challenges ahead.
There is momentum behind Disney.
I would agree with you just in terms of what I'm hearing from the guests on this show.
But I also want to ask about content length and in terms of competition,
just simply for people's time out there, of course, Stranger Things,
nine hours in total, much longer than Obi wan Kenobi on Disney plus,
how does that factor into this?
I think it's hugely important and not just for streaming,
but even for theatrical releases and things that go three
hours on netflix that a big director has done.
So, again, I kind of like the bite size approach and you know, there,
there's definitely been a lot of tough Wall Street attention just on the idea of
dumping all the content out there and allowing it
to be binged and burned off really quickly and then
meaning to reinvest.
But I think when you think about it from
the perspective you're asking from the consumer perspective,
um, I think shorter is probably better right now.
You know, the biggest thing in the market is, um,
it's probably something called Tiktok actually,
which is short form stuff that you can't,
you cannot do anything without mentioning how much time they're taking.
So I think it's a big factor and I think top of the shorter, the more bite size,
probably the better, if you ask me
interesting.
Um of course, I think this, yeah, this,
this might change and vary across user viewer generation,
but here are the numbers um, set that we've been talking about.
So I know you're bullish on Disney Plus.
Again, netflix actually losing subscribers for the first time in a decade.
Last quarter, A Disney Plus with 205 million global subs netflix with 221 million.
What's it gonna take, when does Disney Plus surpass netflix?
Um look,
I think if they keep building franchises like this
and building them out in a smart way,
I think that there's a lot of competition to HBO max
is out there and there's tons of really interesting stuff internationally.
Univision's gotta cool offering to.
So, um,
I do think these sort of franchise and smart
releases are actually going to make an impact.
I think,
you know, netflix has got sort of this broader scope issue,
they've got everything from from comedy to games to dock us
and and I think maybe some focus on their part,
you know,
and they've sort of announced that already is probably going
to move the needle more so for them as well.
Um but look, there's this is a very tough, competitive game.
And, um, I don't see, uh, I don't see it getting any easier.
I think you'll probably see more consolidation
interesting. Seth, we're going to leave it there.
That Seth Shatner, managing director at Stratton America, said, thank you.