Netflix’s Success Spotlights Warner’s Failure

OpenAI continued its march to world domination, unveiling its long-anticipated Web browser, ChatGPT Atlas. It offers some snazzy features, including a split-screen view that allows you to ask ChatGPT questions related to the webpage you’re on without switching tabs. Given how difficult it is to change people’s ingrained habits, getting consumers to switch to a new browser may be tough—certainly harder than getting them to try the chatbot. But at least the browser won’t cost OpenAI the GDP of a small nation, unlike some of its other recent chip-related initiatives.

Meanwhile, the big news of the day was in the entertainment industry, where Netflix confirmed the durability of its world domination, at least in streaming. Netflix reported 17% revenue growth for the third quarter, exactly in line with its projection, and it forecast a similar growth rate in the fourth quarter. That growth rate is double or more what smaller rivals like Warner Bros. Discovery and Walt Disney have recently posted in streaming. Netflix’s success must really grate on the folks at WBD in particular. As we also learned on Tuesday, that once-great entertainment giant is again on the sales block—for the third time in nine years—a sign that the 2022 merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery has failed to make money for shareholders. This will be an $80 billion–plus deal, so it’s not exactly small potatoes.