Netflix Declares It won’t be part of Apple’s upcoming video service

Last week, we posted that Apple Inc has invited the media to an event at the Steve Jobs Theater set for March 25 at the Apple Campus in Cupertino, California as it sets to launch a television and video service. We also said the Streaming TV subscription service launch is expected to happen in April.

Apple however did not give a specific focus of the event but rather gave a tag-line “It’s show time.” The TV service will launch globally, a bid to rank above other streaming service like Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video.

Netflix, the world’s dominant streaming service, has said that they will not make the TV shows and movies available through Apple’s upcoming video offering. Netflix’s Chief Executive Reed Hastings said “We prefer to let our customers watch our content on our service,” Hastings told reporters at the company’s offices in Hollywood. “We have chosen not to integrate with their service.”

He however responded that Netflix will compete with Apple and Amazon going forward, “with difficulty,” when asked how they will compete with Amazon and Apple. He also pointed out that Netflix has already been in competition with Amazon for years. “You do your best job when you have great competitors,” he said. He admitted that the increased competition has led to higher prices when sourcing content.

Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, Netflix, Inc. is an American media-services provider headquartered in Los Gatos, California. The company’s primary business is its streaming OTT service that is subscription-based- which offers online streaming of a library of films and television programs, including those produced in-house. As of January 2019, Netflix had over 139 million paid subscriptions worldwide, including 58.49 million in the United States, and over 148 million subscriptions total including free trials.