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Introduction

Netflix has successfully implemented a winning business idea over the last 25 years. We don’t want to start today’s piece with a glaringly obvious statement – but it addresses the crux of the broader question. When an industry becomes so dominant in such a globally competitive market, how do they keep themselves at the top, and how realistic is the idea of Netflix shifting into entirely new areas, just like Facebook did with Meta and VR?

 

The Californian streaming giant first launched in 1997, but its idea for online streaming TV and movies didn’t gather momentum until the early 2010s. Netflix has had the best of both worlds—it got a head start over all of its competitors, who have been spending billions of dollars trying to catch up over the last decade. Still, it also continues to innovate and generate ideas that captivate people on an international scale.

 

It’s great having an idea that gets you ahead of the chasing pack, but it’s another skill entirely staying at the top of the mountain – so what are some of the ideas that market analysts believe could be the next step for Netflix? Do they have their sights on new industries or ideas, or will they simply look to solidify themselves at the pinnacle of the streaming world?

 

News & Casino Gaming?

One idea that has been widely discussed by business and industry experts is Netflix’s potential move to expand its interests into other forms of media. Some believe Netflix might launch into other media ideas, such as news, sports, or podcast streaming.

 

Given the rate at which the casino and gambling industry has grown over the last decade, particularly in the US, some market analysts believe that Netflix might look to implement some version of betting or casino gaming on its website or app.

 

While it is true that the company has a colossal user base across the US, UK, Canada, and Australia, just four countries with a considerable market and millions in each country who enjoy gambling online in their downtime, we’d say it’s unlikely that Netflix will take a venture into casino gaming. With so many people playing gambling games online already and having the providers that they prefer, it’d be a stretch to see Netflix attempt to make inroads into sports betting and casino gaming, but stranger things have happened.

 

Sports Streaming

Netflix is more likely to pursue sports streaming. Over the last four years, some of their sports documentaries have been some of their most successful uploads, and this hasn’t gone unnoticed by those at the top table at Netflix.

 

Although it might be a stretch to call Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul a sports streaming event, and the fact the fight has been widely criticized by notable figures within the professional boxing world, the fact that each man is getting upwards of $20 million for the bout and that it’ll be available worldwide shows that this could be the likely step for Netflix.

 

However, traditional media has a stranglehold on the top sports, whether it’s Sky and its dominance of football in the UK or Fox, NBC, and ESPN at the top of the NFL TV market in the US.

 

In fairness to Amazon Prime, they have started to make a decent dent in this market, but this is one area where streaming services are lagging behind traditional TV. As the advertising revenue of traditional broadcasters continues to fall, for many, their flagship sports coverage is their golden goose, and they’ll be unlikely to give it up without a serious fight.

 

A handful of companies have the customer base and capital to obtain streaming rights for the top sports. Given Netflix has added 5 million new users this summer, they certainly fit into this category. Don’t be surprised to see them try to enter the world of professional sports.

 

Podcasting

Music streaming services like Spotify, Amazon, and Apple have beaten Netflix to the punch in podcasting. Again, we can’t write off Netflix because they have such an eye-watering budget. However, given that Spotify has locked in some of the world’s top podcasters on bumper multi-billion dollar deals, this is one area of the media world where Netflix was slow off the draw.

 

As we discussed with sports streaming, the company has buckets of cash. If they’re serious about getting into podcasting, they could sway some prominent names to their service on big deals, but it feels like Amazon and Spotify have this market locked up.

 

Final Thoughts

The constant theme we’ve drilled home today is Netflix’s sheer amount of capital. The company defies market experts and analysts, exceeding growth expectations seemingly every quarter, with their overall 2023 earnings around $33 billion.

 

As long as Netflix continues bolstering its service and keeping hundreds of millions of monthly subscribers happy, the sky is the limit. They’ll have to be strategic about any potential move into the industries we’ve discussed today—it’ll take them billions to establish themselves—but they have a better chance of doing it than any of the other prominent streaming companies.

 

 

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