Former Netflix CEO: Apple Not in Streaming Market 'With Both Feet'

Netflix co-founder and former CEO Marc Randolph recently spoke to Yahoo Finance, where he commented on Disney+ and Apple TV+, two Netflix competitors in the streaming market.

Netflix
Randolph criticized Apple's free ‌Apple TV‌+ offerings and the number of subscribers that are still not paying. Apple has been offering free year-long ‌Apple TV‌+ subscriptions to those who purchase a new Apple device, and has already twice extended the free subscriptions of those who initially signed up in 2019.

"If Apple spent one quarter as much time on content as they do on giveaways they really could play," Randolph said. "They have no excuse [and] they're still not in it with both feet. They really have to do the entrepreneurial thing and walk up to the edge of the cliff and jump."

He went on to explain that ‌Apple TV‌+ has the "highest churn rate" out of all the available streaming services. "You can't keep replacing people," he said. "You've got to give them a reason to stay."

On Disney+, Randolph said that the streaming service has "fought its way up to a really strong position" with its continuous slate of new content. "It's really a war of who's prepared to make the content," he said. Disney+ just today announced that it has hit 95 million subscribers and could hit Netflix-like numbers in just a few years. Netflix currently has more than 200 million subscribers.

Netflix last month said that it plans to release a new original film every week in 2021, and of the streaming services, it has one of the largest content catalogs available. Disney+ was also able to launch with a huge amount of content, and Disney has regularly been introducing new Star Wars and Marvel shows, among other titles.

Apple built ‌Apple TV‌+ from the ground up and has been adding new content regularly, but the streaming service lags far behind its competitors. Apple has never announced subscriber numbers, but said at the beginning of February that it had seen record viewership with the launch of Justin Timberlake movie "Palmer."

Popular Stories

M5 MacBook Pro

Apple Announces New 14-Inch MacBook Pro With M5 Chip

Wednesday October 15, 2025 6:07 am PDT by
Apple today updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro base model with its new M5 chip, which is also available in updated iPad Pro and Vision Pro models. In addition, the base 14-inch MacBook Pro can now be configured with up to 4TB of storage on Apple's online store, whereas the previous model maxed out at 2TB. However, the maximum amount of unified RAM available for this model remains 32GB. Like...
Apple iPad Pro hero M5

Apple Debuts New iPad Pro With M5 Chip, Faster Charging, and More

Wednesday October 15, 2025 6:16 am PDT by
Apple today announced the next-generation iPad Pro, featuring the custom-designed M5, C1X, and N1 chips. The M5 chip has up to a 10-core CPU, with four performance cores and six efficiency cores. It features a next-generation GPU with Neural Accelerator in each core, allowing the new iPad Pro to deliver up to 3.5x the AI performance than the previous model, and a third-generation ray-tracing ...
maxresdefault

Here's Everything Apple Announced Today

Wednesday October 15, 2025 3:54 pm PDT by
We didn't get a second fall event this year, but Apple did unveil updated products with a series of press releases that went out today. The M5 chip made an appearance in new MacBook Pro, Vision Pro, and iPad Pro models. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. We've rounded up our coverage and highlighted the main feature changes for each device below. MacBook Pro M5...
HomePod mini and Apple TV

Apple's Next Rumored Products: New HomePod Mini, Apple TV, and More

Thursday October 16, 2025 9:13 am PDT by
Apple on Wednesday updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Vision Pro with its next-generation M5 chip, but previous rumors have indicated that the company still plans to announce at least a few additional products before the end of the year. The following Apple products have at one point been rumored to be updated in 2025, although it is unclear if the timeframe for any of them has...
Vision Pro M5 Announcement

Apple Updates Vision Pro With M5 Chip, Dual Knit Band, and 120Hz Support

Wednesday October 15, 2025 6:14 am PDT by
Apple today updated the Vision Pro headset with its next-generation M5 chip for faster performance, and a more comfortable Dual Knit Band. The M5 chip has a 10-core CPU, a 10-core GPU with Neural Accelerators, and a 16-core Neural Engine, and we have confirmed the Vision Pro still has 16GB of RAM. With the M5 chip, the Vision Pro offers faster performance and longer battery life compared...
iphone air thickness

Apple Said to Cut iPhone Air Production Amid Underwhelming Sales

Friday October 17, 2025 8:29 am PDT by
Apple plans to cut production of the iPhone Air amid underwhelming sales performance, Japan's Mizuho Securities believes (via The Elec). The Japanese investment banking and securities firm claims that the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are seeing higher sales than their predecessors during the same period last year, while the standard iPhone 17 is a major success, performing...
MacBook Pro M5 Screen

New MacBook Pro Does Not Include a Charger in the Box in Europe

Wednesday October 15, 2025 6:59 am PDT by
The new 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M5 chip does not include a charger in the box in European countries, including the U.K., Ireland, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway, and others, according to Apple's online store. In the U.S. and all other countries outside of Europe, the new MacBook Pro comes with Apple's 70W USB-C Power Adapter, but European customers miss out....
14 inch MacBook Pro Keyboard

New 14-Inch MacBook Pro Has Two Key Upgrades Beyond the M5 Chip

Thursday October 16, 2025 8:31 am PDT by
Apple on Wednesday updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro base model with an M5 chip, and there are two key storage-related upgrades beyond that chip bump. First, Apple says the new 14-inch MacBook Pro offers up to 2× faster SSD performance than the equivalent previous-generation model, so read and write speeds should get a significant boost. Apple says it is using "the latest storage technology," ...
airpods max 2024 colors

AirPods Max 2: Everything We Know So Far

Tuesday October 14, 2025 8:43 am PDT by
Apple's AirPods Max have now been available for almost five years, so what do we know about the second-generation version? According to Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the new AirPods Max will be lighter than the current ones, but exactly how much is as yet known. The current AirPods Max weigh 0.85 pounds (386.2 grams), excluding the charging case, making it one of the heavier...
macbook pro blue

Apple's M5 MacBook Pro Imminent: What to Expect

Tuesday October 14, 2025 4:35 pm PDT by
Apple is going to launch a new version of the MacBook Pro as soon as tomorrow, so we thought we'd go over what to expect from Apple's upcoming Mac. M5 Chip The MacBook Pro will be one of the first new devices to use the next-generation M5 chip, which will replace the M4 chip. The M5 is built on TSMC's more advanced 3-nanometer process, and it will bring speed and efficiency improvements. ...

Top Rated Comments

iapplelove Avatar
61 months ago

I'm currently watching Ted Lasso that everyone's raving about and I don't think it's that good
I bet 9/10 people on the street never even heard of the show. I only hear about apple shows when I’m here on MR.
Score: 32 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Unggoy Murderer Avatar
61 months ago
Wonder if Netflix were in the streaming market "with both feet" when they were still mailing DVD's around the country...? Apple TV+ hasn't even been around for two years yet, and we've had a pandemic to deal with (which will affect production output, as it has with all the platforms). Give them time.

And the stuff on TV+ I've seen so far has been excellent.
Score: 29 Votes (Like | Disagree)
2979382 Avatar
61 months ago
Gimme a break Netflix. I recently unsubscribed because all they do is raise prices, stuff more old movies in and add soaps one after the other.

Not to act like an Apple fanboy, but Apple doesn't have to be in the streaming business with both feet. They can afford to even give it away for free for all eternity as a nice perk for buying Apple hardware. Heck, I would. That alone is an extra reason to buy an AppleTV box or any other hardware. I paid for a while, and then got it free when I bought my M1 machine, and honestly, I think the quality to volume ratio is higher than any service out there. When Netflix started out as a streaming service it was full of utter *****, same goes for Amazon Prime, and frankly Disney+ until recently was mostly for kids - though they are raising their prices too to stuff another service inside it.

So far everything I watched on AppleTV+, I thoroughly enjoyed, and don't say that because I have to, but because I genuinely did. Netflix's CEO should shut up, and be happy that Apple isn't trying to be in streaming with both feet, as that could mean the end of Netflix itself.
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tsa1 Avatar
61 months ago
Agreed.

they need to buy rights to something people actually want to watch. People are becoming addicted to streaming services. Apple has what? The morning show? See? Even HBO Max raised by wolves spoke to me more than any show on Apple TV. Buying big name movies is a start but giving Oprah all these shows isn’t the move.
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
hoodafoo Avatar
61 months ago
I'm currently watching Ted Lasso that everyone's raving about and I don't think it's that good
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ersan191 Avatar
61 months ago
TV+ at its current trajectory seems like a failure to me. Not enough compelling content. They have all these great creators, directors, actors and writers but it feels like they are using ATV+ for all their back burner half-baked secondary content that nobody else wanted to pay to develop because it wasn’t good enough.

Apple knows it too, since they are still giving it away for free.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)