Murdoch: ‘Unite to fight Netflix and Amazon’
October 30, 2014
Rupert Murdoch has called for a cooperative media response to challenger streaming services Amazon and Netflix. The media industry needs its own competitor to these giants, he told a WSJ technology conference.
“As an industry, we need a competitor – a serious competitor – to Netflix and Amazon,” Murdoch said, “I think we’re all on the same page.” 21st Century Fox, which he chairs, is one of the partners in Hulu, a Netflix rival to Netflix, alongside Disney and NBCUniversal. Last year Jason Kilar, Hulu’s CEO, left abruptly for a new video startup, Vessel, backed by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.
Talking of HBO’s new streaming service Murdoch said it would be difficult for HBO to launch a standalone service while negotiating with cable companies. “They don’t want to get into conflict with them, so they’re really only aiming at the moment at the 10 million people who don’t get cable.”