Netflix’s CEO talks Apple TV, Amazon, and the NFL

It’s not every day you see a tech executive lightly dunk on their competitors, but this week, Netflix’s co-CEO Ted Sarandos was feeling a little bold. In an interview with Variety, Sarandos touched on the Max versus HBO name change, sized up Prime Video as a competitor, and expressed confusion over Apple TV Plus, a platform he’s about to have a small acting role in on the Seth Rogen series The Studio.

When it comes to Apple TV Plus, Sarandos said he didn’t get the strategy. “I don’t understand it beyond a marketing play, but they’re really smart people. Maybe they see something we don’t.” In some ways, he’s right about it being a marketing play. Apple’s streaming platform has put a friendlier face on its “services” bottom line, which was previously defined largely by its tax on in-app purchases.

But Sarandos reserved a bigger confusion for HBO. He said he admired the service but didn’t understand the whole “Max” rebranding. “We would always watch what HBO was doing, and at one point they had HBO, HBO Go, HBO Now and HBO Max.” Sarandos said. “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.