Netflix Earnings: 3 Questions for CEO Reed Hastings
Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) is a controversial stock in the investment community for several reasons, not least of which is the increasing number of rival offerings from Disney (NYSE: DIS), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), AT&T's HBO Max, Comcast's Peacock, and others. Some of Netflix's licensed content has already been pulled from the service as it finds its way to those competing platforms. On the other hand, Netflix has 158 million subscribers and counting, which allows it to outspend its streaming peers by several billion dollars annually.
The company reports its fourth-quarter results on January 21 after the close. Here are my three questions for CEO Reed Hastings as the earnings release approaches.
This is the question on everyone's minds these days, since both Apple TV+ and Disney+ launched in November. Netflix's management has been respectful of the new competition but fairly dismissive of its potential impact. Its argument is that there is already plenty of competition in the marketplace, from the likes of Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, HBO, YouTube, cable television, and even gaming. Therefore, additional competition would be unlikely to make a meaningful difference for Netflix. Instead, it would have a much larger impact on cable television as the cord-cutting trend continues. Plus, all these streaming services have very different content, which makes them more like complements than substitutes. That explains why many households subscribe to more than one service.
Source Fool.com
