‘Plenty of Room’ in Streaming for Disney to Succeed Without Harming Netflix, Says Sarandos

If Disney is “successful” with its direct-to-consumer streaming service launching in late 2019, it won’t be to the “detriment” of Netflix, Ted Sarandos, Netflix chief content officer, told a UBS investors conference Monday. “There's plenty of room in this business for other players to be successful.” Sarandos doubts a live-sports offering, like that of ESPN Plus, would be conducive to Netflix, he said. “On-demand” is part of the Netflix “core proposition,” he said. With live sports, on-demand “adds almost no value to it,” he said. “People want to watch sports now. They want to know who won.” Should live sports ultimately become “the next best place to spend $10 billion, I would look at it,” said Sarandos. “Relative to the business today and how we’re growing around the world, professional, scripted and unscripted programming is the best place to spend that money.”