Newmoon Capital

From a unit economic perspective Bears love to cite headline figures and comment that Netflix is overspending on content relative to peers. However, simple math suggests that this is simply not true on a per unit subscriber basis.  Netflix has ~150 million subscribers and intends to spend 15 billion on content. This translates to ~$100 per subscriber . Disney, including Hulu, has about 45 to 50 million subscribers, and spends about ~$10 billion on content, once sports right are removed. This translates to ~$200-220 per subscriber Amazon Prime has about 25 to 30 million active subscribers and spends about ~$4.5 billion on content, about $150 to $180 per subscriber .  Doing this paints an entirely different picture -- Netflix is actually spending the least among peers. Moreover, this only shows the content cost per subscriber, and not other costs which also scales meaningfully.  This calculation also does not account for the fact that Netflix can a...

  What is the end game for Netflix? There has been an ongoing debate on what is going to happen to Netflix and the narratives range from the very bad (bankrupt) to the very good (Monopoly). Most participants debate on short-term issues when the focus should be on the end game.  In my opinion, Netflix wins and the end game will likely be a global oligopoly between Netflix and Disney, with the former being far more profitable than the latter. This post and following parts will talk about this and the reasons behind it. What do customers care about?   In this world where multiple content producers across various platforms are competing for eyeballs, customers have the negotiating power and can choose the content they want to watch.  This is unlike the past where customers are essentially limited by the contents that are available to them, known as linear television. Things have changed when accessibility to cheap and fast internet resulted in a parad...