• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, 3 hours ago

Like other companies that created brand-new business categories and then had them all to themselves before the onset of competition, Netflix is no longer the only game in town.

Competition in the streaming space evidently has the company feeling the sting of battle. Heard the news? It’s in all the headlines.

“Netflix Replaces Content Chief as It Struggles to Engage Viewers” (Wall Street Journal, Oct. 15); “Netflix, America’s Dominant Streaming Service, Has Hit a Wall” (WSJ, Oct. 19); “Netflix Revenue Growth Slows as It Overhauls Programming Units” (WSJ, Oct. 20). “Netflix Cuts 2026 Ad Projection 10% To $2.7B” (MediaPost, Oct. 20).

For all intents and purposes, Netflix invented subscription streaming, launching itself as a streamer in 2007. 

It had the field all to itself for a while. But starting in 2011, Amazon began to offer free streaming for Amazon Prime subscribers.

The rest began to arrive in 2019 -- Disney+ in 2019, Apple TV+ in 2019, Peacock in 2020 and Paramount+ in 2021.

The first HBO Max was launched in 2020, then was rebranded to Max in 2023 and branded back to HBO Max in 2025. 

Add TikTok, launched in 2016, and YouTube TV, launched in 2017, and you get high-use competitors from all sides.

The news coverage of Netflix’s current situation centers to a large degree on issues of engagement. 

The company is still the biggest streamer in the world with a global subscriber count estimated at 325 million.

But according to the stories, engagement is slipping. This has to do with the attention paid to Netflix and its content offerings, particularly new shows and movies.

When Netflix had fewer competitors, it stood apart as the source for a certain kind of new content -- namely (and very generally speaking), dramas, original movies, documentaries and docuseries that did not look and feel like anything else on TV.

Now, Netflix is no longer special. Basically, Netflix today is indistinguishable from the rest. Viewers are bouncing from streamer to streamer looking for something to watch, not just Netflix. 

The leading streamers account for mountains of content choices -- scripted originals, unscripted docuseries, reality competitions, off-network shows both old and new, and everything else.

Netflix’s position is not unlike other companies in business sectors they pioneered. Elon Musk’s Tesla EVs changed the world, and the brand dominated the EV space for years. Now, competition in EVs is coming from all over the world.

Henry Ford made automobiles affordable for average Americans and led the car industry for some 15 years until Ford Motor Company fell behind its competitors -- General Motors in the 1920s and Chrysler in the 1930s.

The reason? Henry Ford clung stubbornly to the Model T, while his competitors introduced new brands and models at a variety of price points with various finishes and features.

In 1927, Ford agreed to retire the Model T and replace it with the Model A, which required that Ford close its factories for six months to retool them for the new line of cars.

Netflix is not necessarily the Model T of streaming services. But if its shows are not attracting the attention (engagement) that the company was once accustomed to, then it may be time to revamp and retool.