THB #354: The Netflix (Quarterly) Fallacy

I do not dislike Netflix.

I just want to say that, without restraint, before this analysis.

Like all the other major companies in the filmed entertainment business, Netflix commands analysis. More so than others, really. As the hottest brand and industry leader of the moment, it deserves more detailed focus than any other company.

After 30+ years covering this industry as a journalist, I have seen a lot of companies come and go, rise and fall, conquer, stabilize, and go stale. This is the norm, not to be unexpected.

As a kid, I idolized Paramount. Then the talent that made Paramount of the 70s and 80s into what it was left. Diller went to Fox. Eisner and Katzenberg went to the moribund Disney, eventually bringing over the surviving half of Simpson/Bruckheimer. Some of the people stayed at Paramount and the company didn’t die… but Mancuso (homegrown) and Tanen (stolen from Universal) built on what they had and didn’t really have the expansive vision of the earlier group. (I bet half the …