While the idea of the Streaming Wars is a bit of a misnomer, as there isn’t any real competition against Netflix, as of now, it does appear that in the years to come, once Disney+, Apple TV+, HBO Max, Peacock, and others get up and running with sizeable libraries of their own, the industry leader will finally have to work a bit harder to keep its subscribers. How will Netflix do that? Well, it would appear that Netflix is going to keep doing what it does best, spend lots of cash.
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According to Variety, a Wall Street firm, BMO Capital Markets, is forecasting that Netflix will spend upwards of $17 billion on content in 2020. Think about that for a second. Seventeen Billion Dollars. That’s a lot of episodes of “Stranger Things.” And when you look at what the competition is expected to spend over the next year, it’s clear why Netflix isn’t really concerned by the other streaming services.
In 2020, Disney+ is expected to spend approximately $1 billion on original programming. WarnerMedia will spend about $2 billion on HBO Max programming over the next year. And Peacock will spend $2 billion, but over the next two years. Basically, Netflix is on a whole different level with spending, which makes sense considering they userbase is well over 150 million people worldwide.
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Even more ludicrous is the idea that this spending isn’t going to slow down anytime soon. The same firm predicts that by 2028, less than a decade from now, Netflix’s spending will increase to $26 billion. So, as far as the Streaming Wars go, it’ll be a long time until Netflix has a serious contender, especially when you consider how much money the platform is spending.
We’ll get a better idea of where all these streamers stand when we get real numbers from Disney and Apple about their November platform launches. That should be coming soon when the companies release their fourth-quarter results.