It's Clear That Internet TV Is ‘Becoming Increasingly Mainstream,’ Netflix Brass Tells Shareholders

It’s clear that Internet TV “is becoming increasingly mainstream and traditional media companies are adjusting to the shift from linear to on-demand viewing,” Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and Chief Financial Officer David Wells said Wednesday in their quarterly letter to shareholders. “It is a great time to be a creator of content because studios make content to sell content (not to withhold it) and there are new bidders for their product,” they said. Some studios “will choose to license content” to subscription-based VOD (SVOD) services like "Hulu, Amazon Prime Instant Video and Netflix,” but “others may not,” they said. “We have a lot of content to select from.” The “competitive landscape remains vibrant” as Netflix competes with many forms of entertainment for consumers’ leisure time, they said. SVOD services “continue to evolve,” and they remain “active bidders for content, in addition to all the cable networks around the world,” they said. “Linear networks that embrace on demand and Internet delivery as we have, will become more valuable and will experience renewed growth (like HBO Now), while those that do not will lose relevancy,” they said. “The secular shift to on-demand consumption is best described as ‘consumers evolving vs. old habits’ rather than ‘Netflix vs. traditional media.’ We’re all racing to fulfill consumer desires.”