Billionaire Barry Diller: Disney+ can't catch Netflix
Whether it's Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+ ... The list is only getting seemingly longer for streaming options.
Barry Diller, chairman and senior executive of IAC and Expedia, spoke exclusively to FOX Business' Maria Bartiromo about Netflix's dominance in the streaming field. He said no one is catching up to them.
"What Disney is doing is not sound for Disney," Diller said. "And they're doing it — and I have great admiration for Bob Iger — because he's made a determination that he had to have direct engagement with the consumer, and the only way to do that is through streaming."
Despite their appealing content, Diller, whose IAC owns websites like Vimeo, College Humor and Daily Burn, said Disney went all-in when it comes to their streaming endeavor. But he doesn't think they have a chance to be Netflix's equal.
"Will they ever get to Netflix's size? I can't imagine it. It seems incomprehensible to me that this will happen."
He qualified they will get subscribers, for sure, but "they're not going to get to the level of Netflix worldwide."
Diller called the streaming wars a land rush for programming.
"It's such a radical miracle that, six years ago, [Netflix] invested what was thought to be an obscene amount of money in a single program called 'House of Cards,' OK?" Diller told FOX Business. "Here's a company not very well capitalized that starts in the streaming business and then makes such big steps that they change the entire entertainment business and change the 100-years-old hegemony of these major entertainment companies."
Diller believes even if Disney spends as much as Netflix did, they won't get a return on that investment any time soon.
"They have to spend it for a while, for sure," Diller said.
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