Netflix CEO Hastings Gives Qualified Support for AT&T, Time Warner -- Update
October 25 2016 - 12:05AM
Dow Jones News
By Deepa Seetharaman
Netflix Inc. Chief Executive Reed Hastings offered his qualified
support of AT&T Inc.'s $85.4 billion deal to buy Time Warner
Inc. -- as long as the deal doesn't give an "unfair advantage" to
Time Warner's networks.
Mr. Hastings said he would back the deal "as long as HBO's bits
and Netflix's bits are treated the same," he said Monday, speaking
at the WSJDLive conference in Laguna Beach, Calif.
"The key thing is whether there is going to be net neutrality,
which hasn't been AT&T's favorite topic," he said. "If they got
there...then good things might happen."
The AT&T deal with Time Warner, reached this weekend, faces
a tough political and antitrust climate. It would combine the
carrier's millions of wireless and pay-television subscribers with
Time Warner's media lineup, which includes networks such as CNN,
TNT, and HBO and Warner Bros.' film and TV studio.
By comparison, Netflix is a small player, but Mr. Hastings looks
to other Silicon Valley giants as his benchmark. With 87 million
world-wide subscribers, Netflix has a long way to go to reach the
billion-plus audiences on Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s
YouTube, Mr. Hastings said.
Mr. Hastings, who sits on Facebook's board of directors, said
the breakdown of Netflix's subscribers should be similar to
Facebook, which has more than 80% of its users outside North
America.
"That should be us," he said. Netflix has rolled out its service
to dozens of countries in recent months, but less than half of its
subscribers are outside the U.S.
Mr. Hastings said Netflix would focus on entertainment and would
stay away from news and sports. But he said he could envision a day
when movies and TV shows would fall out of vogue -- "like opera" --
in favor of entertainment consumed on Facebook and Snap Inc.'s
disappearing chat app Snapchat, virtual reality and augmented
reality.
"In the long run, there will be substitutes," Mr. Hastings said.
"The ultimate challenge for us is: What is that new form of
content? Is it VR, AR? Is it pharmacological?" he joked.
Write to Deepa Seetharaman at Deepa.Seetharaman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 24, 2016 23:50 ET (03:50 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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