On February 6, 2012, Lilyhammer (everyone’s favorite Steven Van Zandt show, obviously) premiered on Netflix, a company then best known for red envelopes that came in the mail. It was the streaming service’s first “exclusive content.” A scant six years later, Netflix is the world’s most valuable media company.
Despite some negative press involving one of its highest-profile shows, Netflix’s stock was trading at an all-time high on Thursday morning, boasting the company’s valuation to $152.6 billion. Meanwhile, Disney‘s stock fell one percent, giving it a market value of $151.8 billion. Somehow, I think the Mouse House — which owns Pixar, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, The Muppets Studio, your cutest pet, your first child, and soon, 21st Century Fox — will rebound.
Netflix, which has been publicly traded since 2002, has become a fierce competitor for Disney and other media conglomerates over the years as streaming as become more popular with consumers. Despite the fact that Netflix continues to burn through cash, the company has become a stock market darling as it adds more subscribers around the world. In April, Netflix announced that had reached 125 million total subscribers and generated $3.6 billion in revenue during the first quarter of the year. (Via)
Sensing Netflix’s ascendancy in the media marketplace (the company currently boasts 125 million subscribers; by 2030, that number is expected to rise to 360 million), last year Disney announced its own streaming service, which is scheduled to debut in 2019. “Do you like The Last Jedi on Netflix?” Disney teasingly asks. “How about an entirely new live-action Star Wars TV series?”
And it’s all thanks to Lilyhammer.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)
