Modern Media Companies Have a Delightful Problem to Solve
Simply building a streaming product isn’t enough. So what’s a legacy business to do next?
Rosen is the author of Medium Shift, tracking the transformations underway in the media business.
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Fifteen years after Netflix launched its streaming-video service, it now has gaming and advertising offerings, both built under the purview of Netflix Chief Product and Operating Officer Greg Peters, who has lately been elevated to co-CEO. Peters is currently the only CEO of a publicly owned media company who has actual, hands-on experience designing, building and managing streaming-media software, and his ascendance will do little to end the debate over whether Netflix is a technology company (how it sees itself) or a media and entertainment company (how Hollywood sees it).
As Netflix has been all too happy to point out in recent letters to shareholders, “it’s hard” and “not easy” for legacy media businesses to “build a large and profitable streaming business,” especially “given the accelerating decline of linear TV, which currently generates the bulk of their profit.” Its argument to Wall Street is effectively that launching a software-based streaming service requires 100% focus and is therefore too complicated for a legacy media company to execute. Ergo, Netflix will win by betting on the technology delivered by Peters and his team.