Regarding Apple TV Plus, Sarandos mentioned his confusion about the strategy. He stated, “I don’t understand it beyond a marketing play, but they’re really smart people. Maybe they see something we don’t.” He is correct in noting that it does have elements of a marketing strategy. Apple’s streaming service has presented a more approachable image for its “services” revenue stream, which was formerly characterized mainly by its commission on in-app purchases.

However, Sarandos seemed more perplexed by HBO. While he expressed admiration for the service, he was baffled by the entire rebranding to “Max.” Sarandos remarked, “We would always watch what HBO was doing, and at one point they had HBO, HBO Go, HBO Now, and HBO Max.” He continued, “When they’re serious, all those names will go away, and it’ll just be HBO.”

Sarandos doesn’t seem to see much competition in Amazon’s original content. “I don’t know what their long-term plans are,” he said when asked if the service would compete with Netflix. Sarandos does say Amazon’s doing right in its live sports strategy, which includes Thursday Night NFL football. However, in the same breath he says: “I don’t know if that’s their entire strategy.”

Netflix is making its own push into live sporting events, which has already included two Christmas Day NFL games, the Paul vs. Tyson fight, and more boxing matches. Sarandos says he wants to keep pushing on events. “Everything we invest in, in the live space should be a contained, ownable event. Every time we buy a football game, I don’t think I’m after an entire season of NFL. I don’t want a season of football; I want the Super Bowl,” Sarandos said.

Sarandos has been with Netflix for 25 years, since its heyday as a DVD-by-mail service, and now it’s a global streaming juggernaut with about 300 million subscribers watching shows like Squid Game and Wednesday.