Neil Cybart 10/19/22 Neil Cybart 10/19/22

Netflix 3Q22 Earnings, Netflix Wants a New Narrative, Netflix's ARPU Mission (Daily Update)

Hello everyone.

We are going to talk more about the iPad line tomorrow. There are a growing number of questions as to what Apple announced (and didn’t announce) yesterday regarding the iPad. We will go over where I think Apple may take the iPad line from here.

Today’s update will be dedicated to Netflix earnings. As the company with the most paid subs in video land, at least until Disney provides its updated subscriber total, Netflix results can provide insights as to how the paid video industry is evolving.

Let’s jump right in.

Netflix 3Q22 Earnings

Netflix successfully played Wall Street's expectations game. The 3Q22 paid subscriber guidance that management gave three months ago was very weak. Management was essentially calling for no subscriber growth on a global basis (+1.0M) despite having a strong quarter from a video content perspective.

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Neil Cybart 9/1/22 Neil Cybart 9/1/22

Disney Considering Memberships, Apple One’s Strategic Value, More Details About Netflix’s Upcoming Ad Tier (Daily Update)

Hello everyone. Welcome to September.

As of now, my expectation is that Tuesday’s update will be published late on Monday (ET). It will be dedicated to going over my thoughts and expectations heading into Apple’s “Far out” product event.

Let’s jump into today’s update.

Disney Considering Memberships

Over at the WSJ, here are Jessica Toonkel and Sarah Krouse:

“Walt Disney Co. is exploring a membership program that could offer discounts or special perks to encourage customers to spend more on its streaming services, theme parks, resorts and merchandise, according to people familiar with the discussions.

The program would be somewhat akin to Amazon Prime, which offers advantages such as free shipping, discounts at Whole Foods and a complementary streaming video service for a monthly or annual fee, the people said. Internally, some executives have referred to Disney’s initiative as ‘Disney Prime,’ although that won’t be the name of the program, one of the people said.

Discussions at Disney are in the early stages. It couldn’t be learned how much the company would charge for membership and how long it would take to launch such a program.

By creating a membership program, Disney would be betting it could offer customers more value, prompting them to spend more on the company’s products and services, while providing Disney with a trove of information about their preferences.

The effort is supported by Disney Chief Executive Bob Chapek, who has been vocal both internally and publicly about the opportunity for Disney to do more to cross-sell to customers, the people familiar with the discussions said."

Disney provided a statement to the WSJ confirming that it is indeed exploring a membership program. The WSJ also claims that Disney has “studied” Apple One in terms of coming up with its own membership program.

My first reaction after reading this story this morning was “it’s about time.” My next thought was wondering if they would call it “Disney One” to signify having various Disney experiences available in one place.

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