Future of Streaming and the Many Reasons Jeff Bewkes Is Wrong (TCTV)

Tuesday, December 14th, 2010

Sarah Lacy writes for PandoDaily, a news site which she founded. She is also an award winning journalist and author of two critically acclaimed books, “Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0” (Gotham Books, May 2008) and “Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky: How the Top 1% of Entrepreneurs Profit from Global Chaos... → Learn More

“It’s a little bit like, is the Albanian army going to take over the world? I don’t think so.”

TimeWarner CEO Jeff Bewkes haughty dismissal of Netflix is still reverberating through the tech world, dominating Holiday party chatter and jokes around the metaphorical water cooler. (At least the nerdy parties I go to.)

This would be Netflix, the company that already makes up 20% of peak Internet broadband. Netflix, the company that helped kill Blockbuster and the DVD purchase market. Netflix, the company that shrugged when Hollywood refused to cut them deals, bought DVDs wholesale and still won. Netflix the company led by Fortune’s top businessperson of the year Reed Hastings.

Techies I’ve spoken with aren’t so much offended as much as they are confused. Really, Bewkes, you think Netflix is done? Is it April Fool’s Day already?

Joining me to discuss why Netflix pulled off the seemingly impossible — building a subscription digital media company the world increasingly can’t live without — and why it will continue to is David Pakman of Venrock who has been around the digital music block and has a few words for Mr. Bewkes. Video below.


Company: Netflix
Website: netflix.com
Launch Date: 1997
IPO: NASDAQ:NFLX

With more than 23.3 million members in the United States and Canada, Netflix, Inc. is the world’s leading Internet subscription service for enjoying movies and TV shows. For $7.99 a month, Netflix members in the U.S. can instantly watch unlimited movies and TV episodes streaming right to their TVs and computers and can receive unlimited DVDs delivered quickly to their homes. In Canada, streaming unlimited movies and TV shows from Netflix is available for $7.99 a month. There are...

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