Rivalries will exist, no matter what the setting, and one of the stranger (and non-intense) feuds out there is happening between Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and FX President John Landgraf, and it’s all about the quality and quantity of original programming. So it’s obviously more awesome and more relevant than most headbutting. A while after Landgraf made it clear he thinks his network’s shows are better than Netflix offerings, Hastings has made it clear that he doesn’t really care about what shows are in competition with Netflix stuff, because it’s Netflix stuff. A solid argument.
Hastings took the stage at The New York Times’ DealBook conference, and when asked about Landgraf’s assertion that there’s too much TV out there, he had this to say, according to TechCrunch.
He’s wrong. There’s not nearly enough…We have a lot of choice, but I think if you do great content, you’re going to find viewers. The bar is definitely rising, there’s no question about it.
That cleanly boils down to him saying he’s making top-notch fiction, and while he knows there are similarly sensational things happening elsewhere, he knows people are going to keep watching Netflix. And he’s right.
People definitely think about Netflix programming differently from linear TV primetime, even when DVRs are added into it. If someone misses out on an FX series during its first season, and he/she hears about it after the season is over, there may not be a way to watch it all at once. But if someone hears about a Netflix series at any point after it premieres, it’s ready for them on that website. There’s some psychological business going on there as well. Maybe it’s just me.
Of course, it helps that Netflix is putting out some excellent series, from House of Cards to Daredevil, and it’s got a slew of upcoming shows ready to capture people’s attention, from Marvel fare to Fuller House to With Bob and David. It’s hard to argue that the streaming service is aiming to nab as many different kinds of audiences as possible, and Hastings said that while he’s still not that interested in news and sports, he is definitely invested in the entirety of the TV spectrum, namechecking Bollywood and anime as two specific types of series he’d want to get into over time.
And for all that Landgraf says there’s too much TV out there, it’s not like hehas ceased his attempts to bring amazing projects to the masses. They’re working on Y: The Last Man adaptation and shows based around comedians Zach Galifianakis and Pamela Adlon, with a large handful of other projects on the way. But whatever the network ends up getting behind for the long run, Landgraf probably shouldn’t think about this as a competition with any streaming services. Because Netflix is gonna do Netflix.
