• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, 10 hours ago

Unsettled investors may have shrugged over Netflix's recent quarterly report -- even as revenues were up nearly 20%. Netflix’s stock price continues to drift lower.

Underlying all this is much discussion about engagement. That is -- in old-school talk -- viewership. Is it rising, stable, slipping, or something else?

In its shareholder letter, Netflix said that in the most recent reporting period, for Q4, viewing engagement rose just 2% for all original Netflix movies and TV shows.

But there are more older, library TV shows and movies that actually declined 6% in the period. That’s not good news going forward -- and shows why it could be worrisome for analysts.

This, of course, brings us to Netflix's attempt to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery with its strongest reasons behind the move: Warner Bros.' vast movie/TV libraries and WBD’s high, well- respected premium streaming service HBO Max -- which is still growing, but much more slowly than the competition.

Netflix continues to be a top premium strong player. But now, hinting at the changing maturity in its streaming world could have a major impact on its business going forward.

So it needs to acquire more streaming channels/brands -- and perhaps put them in a package of sorts.

Walt Disney, for example, has multiple streaming brands under its “Disney Bundle” -- Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN.

Shouldn’t Netflix try to do the same? Imagine if it is successful with WBD and then moves to buy other streaming assets.

Can you see it also owning The Roku Channel, Peacock, AMC+? MGM+, for example?

Netflix, like Disney, probably sees "bundling" as the key to the future. Analysts have said these are new-age cable, satellite or telco pay TV packages.

What stands in their way? Perhaps totally new kinds of video-generation businesses combined under one roof.

Think of where YouTube has grown in overall streaming content -- premium and user-generated content, as well as in social-media areas attached to that content.

Ever wonder why Netflix has hinted about going into video podcasts, gaming and other fringe video-content areas?

It needs to find the next video platforms -- big and small -- that makes it stand out from everyone else.

That will be needed for the second wave of streaming.